


Kicking It Along

by BrightDarkness_2013



Series: Nothing But Water [3]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-30
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2018-09-03 00:39:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 29,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8689831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrightDarkness_2013/pseuds/BrightDarkness_2013
Summary: With Barricade gone Prowl struggles and Jazz talks to Prowl about his family.





	1. Hang On! Here Comes Another One!

Prowl had taken to searching for comfort from Blaster and I. We tried to be there as much as possible, but we had to leave at some point and there were times when we couldn’t be there during the day. Blaster had his own goals and I was pulled away on a patrol or rescue. Or of course there was the forced family gathering for us richys for show. My sister just ate it up. Holidays were tense and they were pushing me to get a ‘real’ job and of course father hinted at pulling strings to get me into a good college. Besides that and heading home I was with Prowl. Prowl spent the rest of that time in his nest. Hiding from the staff and his neighbors who tended to watch him more intently since his escapes. He only ate at night now or when Blaster and I came. He only took what we gave him during the day. At night he’d take it into his nest and the only evidence we had that he was actually eating at all was the fact that he was throwing the bones out of the tank and onto the floor in front of the tank. He had made it easier for us previously by moving the bones off to the corner far off corner of the tank as he preferred things clean, but this was new.  
We had to go down into the tank to check the nest previously as he had been just bringing the fish into his nest and leaving the bones in there and we had no clue whether or not he was eating at all, but after the second time that happened he had started tossing it out and onto the floor. It was a pretty straight forward sign that he wanted to be alone and didn’t appreciate anyone snooping around his nest. He never acted out violently or really glared at anyone, but he got his points across just fine without any real aggression or threats.  
I sighed as I sat on the feeding platform with Prowl laying with his head in my lap. This had been a norm since his stubborn asshole of a pod mate got himself killed. We would just sit there until I had to leave. He didn’t move or make a sound. Sometimes I would talk and other times I had carefully placed music playing. Then there were times where we would just sit in silence. Sometimes Blaster would join us and other times he didn’t. There were times I’d come to find that Blaster had beaten me to it. We’d pull out the loose and dying scales since he hadn’t been doing it himself lately. This was much worse than back in the cove.  
“I know you’re hurting and all, but this whole hiding all day isn’t good for ya either. I kinda get where you’re coming from if ya believe it or not. Sure no one in my family has gone and died besides a great grandfather that I never knew, but I do in a way.” I spoke absentmindedly that morning. “I know that despite how my sister acts I’d do whatever I could for her. It’s a very complex feeling really. I mean I know that if I told her not to do something that she’d go and do it anyway and when she realized that I was right she’d never bring it up. We don’t and probably never will have a relationship that’s even close to half of what ya had with Barricade and the rest of your pod as we have been practically ignoring each other for since we hit our teen years, but I’ve done some things for her. I’ve pranked every ex boyfriend that she’s ever had just because she is family.”  
I sighed again as the cool sunlight fell on us through the dome above. Prowls newfound little fan club was watching us. It was a usual things now, but I had to wonder what was up with them. They had threatened and went out of their way to either ignore Prowl and Barricade or try to aggravate them, but now they just watched quietly. I pulled out a few loose scales that just barely hung on to his side. It was quiet.  
“It’s kind of sad. We used to be so much closer. Maybe I do it for what we used to be. We, as richys, tend to have our friends picked out for us. We bonded on hating our forced friends. Hiding from them and doing whatever we could to ditch them so we could do what we wanted to do. I remember we hid in the attic in the far corner behind all these boxes for hours. Back then she wasn’t afraid of the spiders and their webs so it was fine. We sneezed from the dust and giggled as we talked about what they were doing downstairs as we played board games we had stored up there. We were home schooled back then and were stuck with private tutors and we were all we had.” I paused to take a breath as I lost myself in the memory of what we lost. “We did everything together back then. We had to literally beg and pester our parents every chance we had to get to go to an actual school with other kids. That wasn’t often as our parents just left us with the two maids. They were more than enough for us from the way they think. Less money and having one each following us and cleaning up our messes and feeding us and it was fine in their book. They really only had us because it was expected of them as people in high society I think.”  
I was probably an embarrassment. I hummed to myself a second. I already knew they didn’t like my working here. They were either pissed or thinking about disowning me. They never threatened it before, but from how they were never around I wouldn’t put it passed them. They had no doubt forgot about us when they were on business. We didn’t exist really unless it was for some gathering the way I saw it.  
“When we finally got into a real school, of course that was after the argument that we didn’t want to go to a high quality school with our forced friends, that was when we were forced apart. For the first time we were separated and we had to socialize with others. It took some time, but we made our own friends and… Well we drifted apart. It was subtle at first and before we knew it there was this… Rift between us. It was like there was this wall and any attempt to break it down was awkward and we just quit trying. Her friends fed off her high status and money while mine couldn’t care less. Nat... She started playing dress up for mommy and daddy and followed their little plans and I… Well I’m here.”


	2. Kick It Harder And Maybe It'll Get Somewhere!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jazz thinks up ways to cheer Prowl up.

“You’re really strong, Prowls. I know it doesn’t really seem like it, but you’ve endured a lot since the destruction of your nest.”  
It was a warm Thursday afternoon. The early morning chill had long since passed and my main jobs seemed to be with the mers so far as it was better for me to be in the area to support Prowl. It had been brought up by Ratchet and supported by Aid. Since Blaster had his own goals I was the only other option. So I had little lessons on mers to look forward to every once in awhile when they had time and how they behaved and reacted to various marine life in depth. Ranging from pod members themselves to how they acted and reacted to different mer pods of various species to the plants they were familiar with.  
“You’ve really had a rough go of things since birth really. Splitting off on your own to find another pod to merge with. Must’ve been difficult to find a pod to merge with that had two spots open. And you’ve lost a lot since then. But things will get better. Just hang on a little longer.”  
I looked up to look at the mers that were watching as per usual. Quiet and dare I say curious? Their behaviour was something else. A complete 180 since Barricade had fallen ill and was taken away to the medbay. I took a second to place a name to them. Magis Accuratius. They were a type that were built for strength rather than speed or stealth as several others, but they were a peculiar type. It was actually kind of amazing how they worked. They built their nests with anything they could. They were known to make little fortresses for protection out of sunken ships and anything else that they could get their hands on. They caused trouble sometimes by taking apart structures underwater that were still in use, but most of the time they stayed away from the shore and people. Unfortunately they came into contact with people who went to scavenge the sunken materials and they were aggressive and protective of their nests like any mers. They had plenty of materials in their tank to build what they’d like, but so far it was untouched. What they had started had been abandoned with the death of their pod mate.  
Prowl didn’t pay them any attention. He never spared a glance their way anymore. I knew he was aware that they were watching him, but I suppose it didn’t really matter when he was hurting like this. He was suffering so what did they matter? I shifted to slide him off of my lap and lay next to him. He reburied himself into me. Effectively hiding in my chest. I pet his ear fins.  
“I promise ya that things will be ok. We just need to take this one day at a time. Keep looking too far ahead and it’ll seem impossible. Ya can’t see the end from here and it makes it seem hopeless. Trust me, Prowl, I know. I’ve had my own struggles. Different, but it’s the same concept. Ya can survive this and one day ya can look back and you’ll realize how far you’ve come.”  
He was quiet, but his ear fins twitched. He was listening at least. He had been silent ever since that day and I wanted him to say something even if no one could understand. He had no one to talk to now, but that didn’t stop me from hoping. He had made sounds back at the cove and had greeted Blaster back when he had first gotten here with Barricade. Maybe he’d be able to talk with the others. They weren’t threatening him anymore so maybe they’d start talking one of these days. I know Prowl could use someone to talk to. Hell I wouldn’t mind him talking to me. Even if I couldn’t understand I’d still listen and he’d get it out. Damn language barriers.  
“Ya know if ya want to talk I’ll listen… I know it seems really stupid as I can’t understand and I have no clue whether or not ya can actually understand me, but I think it’ll be good for ya. Ya can talk whenever ya feel like it and ya can take all the time you need. Otherwise I can just talk your ear off. I can be a pretty good distraction I think. It’s better than just sitting in silence and thinking about what happened. It’s kinda why I turned to music so long ago. It fills the silence and chases away the demons. Do ya have music down there? I know your language kinda sounds like you’re all singing, but that’s different.”  
I paused as he shifted and curled further into me. I had hoped he was going to do something, but no. At least he had moved. I slid my hand down to his restless wing fin. It ceased its twitching when I pet it.  
“Ya can just hit me or something if ya want me to shut up. I can’t tell what ya want, but I’m sure ya can get whatever ya want across. You’re smart. Look at ya opening doors and escaping traps and what not. Ya really are the sharpest they’ve come across so far from what they’re saying. Honestly you’re probably more clever than a lot of people in the world come to think of it. Oh I know maybe I can bring in some puzzles or something and we can work on those together. It’ll give ya something to do and it’s much better than just sitting here all day.”  
This was actually a good idea. Prowl needed something and a change could help. Maybe we couldn’t speak, but we could make this work. We could work together on something. I could get some puzzles and buy a can of that ‘Never wet’ spray stuff and some puzzle glue so they wouldn’t fall apart.  
“I bet ya could figure out puzzles if ya could figure out doors. It’s kinda the same thing.”


	3. Oh No! More Family Life!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jazz goes digging in his parents attic.

Thursday night I went digging in the attic of my parents mansion. Ripping through boxes and fighting off spider webs that seemed to appear out of nowhere. My sister’s ridiculously expensive car wasn’t in the garage so that meant that she was out with her ‘friends’ and who knew what they were doing. My bet was on buying out some store of it’s clothes and making them very happy or out at some party looking for another boyfriend. I hadn’t bothered ringing the bell and had just came in. Just said hi to Nancy on the way up the stairs. Despite the number of cars in the garage our parents weren’t here either. They were off in Peru for who knew what this time. Probably trying to get their hands on more property or something so they can get even richer. Thankfully I was out of this place. With the cash I had saved up for once when I decided to follow Blaster to the MWPA really helped before I finally landed that full time job. Then of course Blaster helped pay as well as he wanted to help at least a little. I had money to spare for both of us from my weekly allowances so a small apartment close to the facility was easy enough to get and I had to say we lived rather comfortably in the space.  
I was cut off when they realized that I moved out and since I had rarely saw them when they were at the house it took them a while to realize it. I was sure it was some game they were trying to play. Cut me off and I come running back or something. But I wasn’t like Nat and her ‘friends’ who would buy everything in sight. I didn’t want to play their little games and I had cash to spare and then some so if they wanted to control me they’d have to try much harder. No one had bothered to tell them when I left so I got a pretty good head start with moving the cash into an account that I had full control over. Plus they couldn’t blame me or anyone else for not saying anything. You didn’t call mom and dad when they were away. It was rule number one. They didn’t care if the house was burning down. You did Not call them under any condition. If the house was on fire call the cops and get out. They could always get a new one built and we could just head to the emergency house that sat across the new bridge until the repairs were done. We had the cash to get a bloody limo ride and more there. If the house was being robbed well there was always money to get the items replaced and if you got shot well you should have just done as they asked.  
I gave a short noise of triumph when I found some of the puzzles Nat and I would make, tear apart, and remake when we were kids. Some were larger than others, and I knew there were more hiding in the other boxes somewhere, but the five of them would do for now. I cast a final glance to the dusty carpet and beanbag chairs in the far corner before I pulled the string to the light and headed back down the stairs. Everything up there seemed faded. The colors muted and looked to be fading away with our childhood. Here I was leaving it behind. I groaned at the number of stairs that lay between me and the front door. It had been harder on the way up, but that still didn’t make the way down fun.  
“Bye, Nancy. Tell Liza I said bye for me.”  
“I will. Have a good night, Jazz.” The old maid responded as I continued down.  
She and Liza were nice. Always had been when we were growing up, but sometimes I wondered how they saw us. Always having to watch us and put up with our tantrums. Discipline us. Make sure we were fed and got our homework done. Made sure were clean and took care of us when we were sick. I couldn’t count the number of times we had woken them up in the middle of the night because we had a nightmare or were afraid of the thunderstorms. Baking cookies on Saturday mornings and watching cartoons. They put up with a lot from us. Entertaining us and humoring us. They were more like our family than our parents had ever been. Nancy and Liza were kind of like caring grandmothers. More so than our actual grandparents were. And that was what made me stop on the way down.  
“Nancy?”  
“Yes?”  
And there was the kind smile I would never forget. The one that filled my childhood and rarely ever fell except when she was being serious or disappointed. And oh did I hate it when she gave me that look. The first time I got it was when I colored on the wall on the day my parents were scheduled to return. I had only wanted them to pay me some attention. After she had put me in a corner and got the mess cleaned up she had asked me about it and long story short I spent half an hour crying into her chest as she comforted me. Telling me that they did love me and they were just busy. I gave her my best smile back.  
“I appreciate ya and Liza putting up with Nat and I when we were kids. I know we were difficult until the end here, but thanks. I love ya, Nancy. Don’t ya ever forget that.”  
“Oh we love both of you kids too. Take care of yourself, Jazz.”  
“I will. Don’t worry.”  
And then I was gone. Yeah I would miss Nancy and Liza. Maybe they would miss me too.


	4. And So It Begins!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prowls first puzzle... Aw...

I walked in that morning with a large smile. I really wanted to see what Prowl would think of puzzles. I didn’t doubt it would take some time for him to figure it out, but he was smart. If he could figure out doors then he could figure out this. It was just a picture that had been cut into pieces. Putting them back together was a pretty simple concept. He’d get it eventually.  
“Hey, Prowl.” I called as I approached the tank. “I got something for ya.”  
He slipped out of his nest and followed me along like he always did now. Just the glass wall between us. Still silent and pressing as close to the glass as he could. Rising with me as I climbed, puzzles and his breakfast in hand. Then he jumped up onto the stand when I came up the last few steps. I set the boxes behind me as I sat down. Prowl settled across my lap.  
“Alright first of all ya need breakfast. Then I’ve got something I want to show ya.”  
Prowl never moved from my lap, but he ate absentmindedly when I shoved the fish in front of him. It was like he had no interest in eating anymore, and only did so for Blaster and I. If anyone else tried to feed him he’d just ignore it. I guess it was kind of the same thing that happened with Barricade. Prowl was worried and tried to get him to eat and so now he didn’t want us to feel how he felt or something. It wasn’t exactly a comforting thought, but at least he was eating. I would hate to see him being force fed like Barricade had. He’d probably find a way to escape or even hurt himself with it eventually if he really wanted to give up.  
I sighed when he poked at the bones. I tossed them each over my shoulder and onto the floor below. I’d pick it up later. Right now Prowl was far more important than the floor and if some fish bones were going to be a distraction then they needed to go.  
“Ok you’re done. Now then This is what I wanted to show ya.”  
He barely glanced at the box. He had no interest in it at all, but hopefully that would change. I carefully opened the box and poured the contents where we could both reached it. It was a small one, but starting with the simple 75 and 100 piece ones was better than giving him a hard one and expecting him to get it. It would be like giving a fourth grader trig problems and expecting them to understand it. If you don’t have any prior knowledge on a subject then you can’t just jump right in. This puzzle was of a grassy meadow with flowers and a kitten in the center.  
“And this right here is a puzzle. Ya remember what I was talking about yesterday, right? Of course ya do. I talked about puzzles until ya were probably thinking of shoving me into your tank to get me to shut up.”  
Prowl just watched me flip over the pieces until they were face up. Still no interest. At least he was watching. That was something.  
“So the point of this is to put all the pieces together and make the picture that appears on the cover of the box. See? That right there is what we’re going to make with all of these. It’s time consuming to find what pieces fit, but it’s fun. Ok so I’ll start and ya can just join in whenever.”  
I doubted he’d get it from just the explanation anyway. So I started fitting some of the pieces together. Prowl didn’t even seem the slightest bit interested until the picture started coming together. I had a bit of a ‘U’ shape going on by this point and Prowl lifted his head up a little.  
“See?” I pointed to the picture on the box and then the scattered puzzle. “Ya get it now? It’s neat, right? I figured ya would like something like this.”  
I ended up finishing that puzzle on my own. At least he seemed a little curious now. So I slid that one back into the box, kind of folding it in half so it would fit. I’d take it apart later. I pulled over another one and dumped that one out and started on it. This one was a little Disney movie puzzle. It was the desert in Aladdin with one of the cave of wonders scenes. I started putting it together. Nearly all the pieces looked the same. Just a golden color of the sand. I had a few pieces together when Prowl moved. My face split with a grin when he picked up one of the pieces to look at it before setting it back down. He looked over the mess of pieces, his eyes darting about like he was looking for something. Then he started sliding some of the pieces over to one side and I didn’t care for the reason too much. He was doing something and this was a big step. I didn’t say anything though as I didn’t want to spoil it. It took me a while to realize that he was separating and putting together the edge and corner pieces. He had the frame done rather quickly that way. Yep. Smart. He already had a strategy down. Then we started filling it in. I felt a spark of pride at our first finished puzzle.  
“Well I think we’ll get this one framed for ya. A little line on the bottom saying Prowls first puzzle. What do ya think?”  
As expected he didn’t really give me a response to my joke though I didn’t care. Nothing could ruin my mood right now. Prowl was doing something. So I folded that one and returned it to the box before bringing out the next.


	5. AND I'm Back!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Names for the five mers!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas! Thanks for waiting! I've got my birthday on the 28 too! Cake! More sugar!

When I wasn’t there on those rare occasions Blaster would be. He had taken to reading books out loud despite not knowing whether or not he could understand. Blaster had reasoned that he might as well read aloud instead of just sitting in silence when I asked him about it. It was kind of funny to see Prowl draped across his lap like an oversized cat while he read. I couldn’t tell if he was listening or napping, but he seemed content and with our efforts Prowl seemed just a little bit better over the last couple of weeks. He still wasn’t grooming himself or coming out during the day for others, but he seemed just a little less sullen. Maybe it was just me, but I thought that the puzzles and his little story times with Blaster were helping.  
Then of course to add to the list of positives it seemed the five mers were trying to get Prowls attention now from what I was hearing. Aid was rather excited about it. If Prowl merged with them then there would be a complete pod that could be released back into the water. No doubt it would make all of their healing go much quicker and they’d let go. I doubted Prowl was the one who decided to start skulking around the bridge and attack people anyway. He wouldn’t go back to the bridge. As for the others Prowl could add some reason to their group. He definitely stick out among the black and greens, but they could protect him from predators and other mers. If things went bad then Prowl would think something up and escape.  
However Prowl ignored their calls. He wouldn’t even look at them. Whether it was out of spite and some form of payback due to how they had been treating him and Barricade before or if he really just wasn’t interested we weren’t sure. They were much more active now. They called to him regularly. Watching and waiting for when he would emerge. It was something else to see them follow Prowl about to the best of their abilities with the glass and space between them. A couple of them were almost always pressed against the glass when Prowl was out of his little hidden nest. However they didn’t seem bothered in the slightest as they seemed to mildly fight for who was up against the glass anyway.  
They kind of reminded me of children in a way. They were practically fighting for the attention that Prowl wasn’t even giving in the first place. It never came to blows or bites, but they did hiss and push each other occasionally. When Prowl eventually did look over it was to glare at them, but they responded like he had offered them the damn world instead of threaten them. The happy little noises and excited chatter was pretty funny though Prowl just did a sort of huff and turned away again.  
Ratchet and Aid were paying attention to this much like everyone else. Aid was more obvious about it. Ratchet would just come in and watch for a few moments from the wall before leaving again. Aid was bouncing happily and even talked to the mers as much as he did everyone else. He really wanted this to work out.  
I wasn’t bothered with it one way or the other. If he decided he wanted to give it a shot then he could give it a shot. If Prowl didn’t want to bother with them then he shouldn’t have to. Magis Accuratius were aggressive and strong and if he wasn’t comfortable with it then I would back him up. It would be the same if it they wanted to push him merging with the mini and the two Ante Secutors. The pair were battle types, made to fight and protect the pod, with strong scales for protection. They however hadn’t been brought up again since the five started whistling and tapping on the glass to try and get Prowl to acknowledge them.  
They had started on a nest finally. They tore apart when they had started when they first got here to start anew. Chromia and Elita had gone and named the green black mers during their newest efforts to build a nest. There was Hook and his name came from the accident that brought them in. He had dozens of hooks in stuck in him back then. Bone Crusher got his name from the accident also for obvious reasons. Then there was Scavenger, who would search the sand and rocks and coral intently for anything and everything it seemed. Long Haul was easily bringing over the materials to their chosen site as Bone Crusher broke them off. Finally there was Mix Master. He made a substance with what he had that glued the pieces of their nest together. They cut pieces that seemed to fit together perfectly and it was amazing to watch. It was soon difficult to tell where they even broke apart and fitted them together with the way they were filling in cracks and smoothing things over. There was no wonder why they were called the builders of the sea now. If people could communicate with mers then these guys could really help with underwater construction. Mers in general could help save people and salvage things below the water that people couldn’t.  
They worked on it silently and communicated rarely to each other as they focused on their designated jobs. The large nest they made was rather impressive and when they were satisfied they were back to trying to get Prowls attention. I wasn’t sure when they said exactly, but eventually Prowl actually left his nest with a growl. The others however whistled happily. Scavenger circled the nest with a noise that wavered between two notes and easily showed his joy. Prowl glared daggers as they howled and whistled to him. Then they stopped and seemed to be waiting for some sort of response. A couple of seconds later and Prowl just returned to his nest. They deflated and just stayed put for a time before they started to tear apart their well built nest. It was a shame really, but the next day they were building another. This one different from the other. Different design. More of this less of that kind of thing. They tried again the next morning. The excited sounds when Prowl finally emerged came Again and of course they waited Again. Prowl returned to his nest and they took their nest apart once Again to do it all over Again the next morning. Again. Again. Again. It was just a seemingly endless cycle.  
However one morning they started to add little things in between their nest building. Scavenger popped up above the water and threw a shell of some sort over into Prowls tank. The noise made Prowl jet out of his nest to investigate whatever had invaded his space. He quickly noticed the pink and red shell as it sunk down slowly. He caught it and looked it over before directing his attention to the green and black mers. Scavenger made a soft sound as the others fought each other for the space against the glass that was closest to Prowl. Prowl crushed the shell in his hands and let it drop as he returned to his nest. They deflated and went back to work.  
The next day they saved and threw over some of their own breakfast as some sort of offering in the afternoon. Prowl didn’t touch it until Blaster came in with dinner. Prowl just dropped it out of the tank and crawled into his lap to eat what Blaster gave him as he glared at his now overly friendly neighbors. They looked like he had struck them at that. The looks on their faces were comical with how fast they went from excited to disbelief and upset. For some reason they appeared to be mildly confused on some level that Prowl would willingly jump up to meet us and lay in our laps. To build things with us and let us touch him. It made sense since they had a bit of a throw down with humans and lost one of their own, but they had stopped biting and growling at us after a while when we started feeding them and giving them their materials to build with.  
On another morning they made some sort of necklace out of some underwater flowers and threw it over with a shell attached to it. Prowl looked them dead in the eye as he snapped the seaweed string and shredded the flowers. They looked heartbroken as he returned to his nest. I was starting to wonder if they were going to give up after that one. Prowl obviously wanted nothing to do with them. But the next day they had made some type of art out of some of the coral. They made smooth little round or oval like shapes from it and carved in little designs with their claws and threw them over for Prowl to inspect. Prowl had took one look at them and returned to his nest with a rather irritated expression. Whether this was putting him in a bad mood or not he was coming out his nest during the day even if it was only for a few seconds. Maybe this was good for him.  
Arcee and plenty of others had wanted to look at the art including Percy and Jack. It was something that would no doubt want to be studied along with this behaviour. But when Arcee entered Prowls tank the five stopped working on their newest nest to look at her. Their scales rose slowly when Prowl came out to investigate. She wasn’t even slightly bothered by Prowl as she went down to the bottom to gather and look at the scattered art stones as she was calling them. That was when they started hissing and growling. They were throwing a fit in their own tank when she started to pick them up. Prowl just followed her around and watched her curiously like he did whenever anyone entered his tank to clean it or for any other purpose.  
Arcee ignored them, pet Prowl, and then pushed off the bottom to surface with the items. Prowl watched her another moment before returning to his nest despite how his neighbors were acting mere feet away. Each one had something different on them. One had what looked like a snake curling all around the coral stone, its jaws open to show fangs and a large and dangerous looking fin on its back. Another had what looked to be some sort of large underwater flower with a large amount of petals and a strange stem that split off toward the bottom. The next had a swirl of fish around it in several neat rings. Then there was one that had a forest of seagrass or some other plant with little fish and other creatures hiding within. Finally there was one that held a ship wreckage that probably was their home before they came into contact with humans. Each one was surprisingly neat and detailed. If they could make things like this then there were a lot of things that could be explained and it really opened some new doors. Did they have their own art? Could they write? Did they have their own real written language? Could people learn it? Could they learn ours?


	6. Talking 'Bout Prowl!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blaster and Jazz talk about teaching Prowl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm having lasagna for my Birthday dinner in two days! And cake! Yay!

It was another average day, but one filled with new ideas and goals. Prowl was sprawled across mine and Blaster’s laps as we worked on pulling out the useless scales. There wasn’t many. There never really was, but Prowl seemed determined to ignore them yet and if the old scales were left then new ones couldn’t grow in their place. The dying scales were harder to pick out on Prowl due to his coloration. It was much easier on the others as the color would fade, but on a mostly white mer they were practically invisible. So we would just run our hands over his scales and search blindly for scales that moved more or were softer than the others. Then we gave a soft tug and if it started to give with ease we would pull it out to reveal a new scale just starting under it. During this process we would talk and the most we got out of Prowl was a twitch of one of his ear fins.  
If anyone else tried to groom him he would move away. If they persisted he would flee to his nest. If they kept up after that, which was rare, but had to happen if we weren’t there for an extended period of time due to other duties, then he would deal with it. He made sure they knew he wasn’t happy about it though with half growls and glaring ahead. Any dying scales left for too long would eventually start to rot and cause illness and infection. It took a while for that to even begin to happen, but it was best not to even give something like that the slightest chance to happen.  
“So I was thinking that maybe we could try and teach Prowl to read or write or something. I mean maybe he can’t form words or maybe he can, but I think having some way to communicate would be nice.” I looked over at my friend who was diligently working on our mer.  
“That will take quite a bit of time. Are you sure you’re up to a task like that?” Blaster responded with a slight smirk.  
“I have patience. Besides Prowl is a quick learner. He picked up puzzles easily enough. Ya have already started reading to him. Maybe ya could start letting him look at the pages or something. Get him some kids books to look at with ya or something.”  
“I guess that might work, but language is harder to learn than something like putting the pieces of a puzzle together. Lets write the alphabet down and try from there. I mean there’s only so many letters so having him know that might help with writing words.”  
“See? This is why I keep ya around. Ya got some great ideas in there.” I tapped his head and he smacked my hand away with an eyeroll.  
“Shut it.”  
I smacked him back and we had a bit of a back of forth thing for a second. That was when Prowl looked back at us and growled warningly.  
“He started it.” I pointed at Blaster.  
“I did not. Don’t go pushing this all on me.”  
“Ya hit me first.”  
“You insulted me.”  
“Oh ya big baby. I was just teasing ya and ya know it.”  
“Bite me.”  
Prowl hissed before laying his head back down. We sat there for a moment.  
“I can’t tell if he’s mad.” I leaned over to speak softly to Blaster.  
“Try talking to him or something.”  
“I dare ya to poke him.”  
“What? No. You do it. You found him first so he’s Your responsibility.”  
“Oh wow. I thought we were in this together Best Friend.”  
“Says the one who wanted me to deal with something You started.”  
“Fine, fine. Ya ok, Prowls? You’re not mad at us or anything, right?” I let my fingers graze over his wing fin.  
He made a soft noise. It was slightly irritated, but he made no move to deter me from touching him.  
“I think we’re ok.” I slowly eased back into searching for dying scales and Blaster followed suit.  
“Just saying it was your fault.”  
“Oh whatever. So how about little flashcards or something?”  
“If we get some items and write out their names that might work. Starting with things that are familiar like coral or fish breeds would work best. If we start trying to teach him things that he has never seen before that would do more harm than good. As far as we know he thinks I’m just holding the book for no reason and talking nonsense just because I can.”  
“Ya bring up a good point. Lets run this by the Ratch man later. I think Prowl’s had enough of our nonsense today.”  
“You mean Your nonsense. I’m just along for the ride as usual. Brought against my will to suffer.” Blaster put in dramatically complete with a pose and a regal tone of voice.  
“Ya like my nonsense and ya know it.”  
4444444444444444 The Fours Have Started To Take Over!444444444444444444  
It was a go. So Blaster and I had spent one night at home working on flashcards and talking over how we were going to do this. Then of course we would need Cliff to gather plants and tell us what they were or at least me. Then we could go from there. Maybe we could even teach him to write.  
It might take longer than we thought as Prowl was going to be under some serious stress soon. They wanted to try and put them into the merger tank and see how it would go. They doubted that the Magis Accuratius would try and hurt him with how they were acting. Prowl was at more of a risk for violence and even that was a slim chance. The preparations were coming along rather nicely. I just hoped Prowl would be ok. Aid reassured me that if Prowl was put under too much stress for too long or if he started to act out then they would pull him out.


	7. Onward!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prowls first day of language school.

“Day three without food or water and the task is seemingly impossible. I’m not sure how much longer we can last out here like this.”  
“Oh would you quit it with the voice over. We’ve barely started, we just had breakfast, and there’s water Everywhere.”  
“This is my movie preview voice and it makes everything sound awesome, Blaster.” I spoke in a matter of fact tone.  
“Great. Wonderful. Now are you going to help me teach Prowl or not?”  
“Yes.”  
“Then get off the floor and come up here.”  
I looked up from my spot on the floor. Both Blaster and Prowl were watching me. Prowl was looking rather confused and Blaster was looking at me like I was an idiot. I stood and began my climb.  
“With one final push-”  
“Stop. I swear I will slap you.”  
“It’s fun. Ya should try it.”  
“No thank you. Ok so lets get started before Prowl decides that we aren’t worth this.”  
“I was just having some fun before we got down to being serious.”  
“And Prowl might start thinking you’re going crazy or dying because you keep changing your voice.”  
“Che. Prowl doesn’t care.”  
“Really? To me it looked like he was looking at you like you were an idiot.”  
“How do ya know what he was thinking?” I challenged.  
“If he didn’t care he wouldn’t have looked at you in the first place.” Blaster answered without pause before going back to opening the little box we brought along.  
We had brought along some flash cards, a notebook, a few pencils, and plenty of items that were common in the ocean. The page that had the alphabet on it was in a ziplock bag to protect it and folded to fit.  
“Ok, Prowl. Lets get started.” I announced with a grin.  
Prowl looked at the items curiously. First up was showing him the notebook and how the pencil worked via demonstration. Next was showing him the page with the alphabet. Through this simple step Prowl just simply watched us as per usual. Then I pulled out the seashell and set it before him. He turned it over as if looking for something before giving a confused expression. Like he was asking me what he was possibly supposed to do with it. I took it back and set it next to the notebook where Blaster wrote out the word seashell slowly for Prowl to watch.  
“Seashell.” I smiled as I pointed to the word and then the shell.  
And there was that look again. The one that plainly said that I was an idiot. I sighed dramatically before pointing out each individual letter on the protected sheet and the word on the notebook to show him where we got our little ‘symbols’ though he still didn’t lose that look. This was going to be harder than we thought.  
4444444444444444444 The Fours Are Gaining Followers!44444444444444444444  
Day by day we worked on trying to get him to understand while his neighbors still struggled for his attention. The day that he was to be brought into the merger tank was rapidly approaching. We were still working on getting him to understand just One word. Just the fact that we had our own language and that this was how we got words. How we wrote them and blah blah blah. But no he was looking at me like I was the one who didn’t understand.  
“This isn’t that hard. Ok maybe it kinda is. Languages are hard, but you’d think ya would have one word down by now.” I sighed and Prowl hadn’t bothered to move.  
“Things like this take time.”  
“Yeah yeah yeah. I know. Ok lets take this from the top. Ya know what this is. This is a piece of coral, but this is how we spell it. C- O- R- A- L Coral.” I spoke out loud as I wrote each letter down. “So- hey! Don’t roll your eyes at me.”  
“Jazz-”  
“No. He rolled his eyes at me. Ya didn’t see it because he isn’t facing ya.”  
“I don’t think he rolled his eyes at you. And if he did we have no clue if it means the same thing where he comes from.”  
“Well he could have picked it up from being around us for so long. Hey hey hey! Where are ya going? We’re not done here.”  
Prowl ignored me and slipped off the stand and into the water.  
“Well. I think you offended him.”  
“Me? He’s the one who rolled his eyes at me and has been looking at me like I don’t have a brain since we started this. If anything I am the one who should be offended.”  
Our little argument was cut off when Prowl returned with a larger piece of coral. He settled back across Blasters lap and started scratching at it.  
“What are ya doing now?”  
All I got was a slight growl before he went back to scratching at it. When he was done he showed it to me. There were three little symbols scratched into it. He then pointed to the symbols and then to the coral before crossing his arms. One looked like a lowercase A with a circle in it. The next was two matching squiggles that looked like waves and the third looked like a two intersecting triangles. We both took a second.  
“Oh… my…” Then Blaster burst out laughing.  
“What?!”  
“He thinks you’re a moron.”  
“Oh shut up.”  
“No he thinks you’re so uneducated that-”  
“Shut up. I can see that.”  
Well in a way this was progress. Also this was solid proof if there was any that they did have a written language. If only we could get him to understand. So far all he was doing was acting like I was the one who wasn’t getting it. Blaster was absolutely no help. All he was doing was laughing at me and when I made to smack him Prowl growled at me. Why couldn’t things ever go my way? Also getting him to stop looking at me like I was an idiot would be great too.


	8. Stuff and Thingssss!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prowl tries to teach Jazz.

The fact that there was a written language was something that really made the place explode with excitement. Percy and Jack were down studying the symbols and making copies of them for further examination later. A new goal was added to our little list now. Get Prowl to write down more symbols. We knew how to spell coral now in their language, but I very much doubted that we would ever be able to say it. Hopefully they could at least be able to understand what we say even if they couldn’t figure out how to speak our language.  
However it seemed that language was just harder to teach now since he was thinking that we didn’t know what we were doing instead of the other way around. Blaster found that just hilarious. Everytime I tried to teach him a word Prowl would look at me like he couldn’t believe how stupid I was. So far he hadn’t carved down another ‘word’ to show us. He just wrote down the same one and pointed at it as he stared at me.  
“What? I don’t understand what ya want me to do here. What do ya want?”  
Prowl just pointed at the three symbols again.  
“Yeah I get it. It’s coral. I know what those three symbols mean now. Great, but what do ya want me to do with it?”  
He tapped them a few times and I gave a dramatic and exasperated sigh as I ran a hand down my face. And Blaster was laughing at my misfortune yet again.  
“What? Why don’t You try to figure out what he wants. Huh?”  
“No thank you. I am content just watching.”  
“I can see that, but I really could use some help here. I don’t speak… I don’t speak Prowl.”  
“You don’t speak Prowl?” He laughed again. “I’m pretty sure this looks more like mime. And since he can’t speak you have to give him credit for trying to teach You. You were a bad student with human teachers.”  
“Shut. Your mouth.”  
“You asked.”  
“I asked for help in trying to figure out This. Not comments on my school efforts.”  
“Or lack thereof.”  
“I will shove ya in the tank. I swear it. I am This close. This Close.”  
Prowl just simply waited for our little argument to end and my, to his view, pointless gestures. Then he was back to pointing at the symbols.  
“What do ya want me to do? I can see it.”  
Prowl just huffed before he pointed to our little box next.  
“What? Yes it’s a box.” I pulled it closer.  
He pointed at it again. I pulled out the coral piece.  
“This?” I asked only to get a growl. “Ok no. Shut up, Blaster.”  
The process of me pulling out items and him growling at me continued before I got to our notebook. That was when he pointed to the symbols and then to the paper.  
“Ya want this? Ok. Whatever.”  
I offered it to him and he just shoved it back with that look again. Then he repeatedly pointed to the symbols and to the notebook a few more times.  
“What? I don’t get it. What do ya want from me?”  
“Oh geez.”  
“What now? If you’re not going to help ya might as well shut up.”  
“I think he wants you to practice.”  
“What? Oh come on. Ya can’t be serious. Come on, Prowl. I get it. I know what it means now. I swear.”  
“He doesn’t know that. As far as he knows you still don’t get it and you’re just throwing a fit because you don’t want to learn.”  
“For the love of- Fine.”  
Prowl settled into Blasters lap more comfortably when I copied the the symbols down.  
“There. See? Ya happy?”  
He tapped the paper.  
“Go on. Write it again.” Blaster teased.  
“Uuuugggh. You’re killing me, Prowl.”  
Of course Prowl didn’t seemed too bothered by my whining. I had written it down enough times to fill the page before he was finally satisfied. I thought I was in the clear before he carved different symbols into the coral chunk. Then he pointed to the sample of seagrass we brought up and to the symbols. Then to to the paper again. He waited with an expectant look. Blaster cracked up as I whined to Prowl who was immovable in his decision as usual. So I was stuck writing down symbols until I finally got an excuse to leave. Never had I ever been so relieved to leave before.  
444444444444444444444444 Run They Have Taken Over The Chicken Farms!4444444444444444444  
The next morning I came in to find Blurr arguing with Arcee.  
“What happened now?”  
“Jazz! Your little pet mer stole my candy! It was horrible! I set it down on the cart to head up and feed Bee and the twins and I come back to find it gone and Bam! I look over and he’s on the steps with my snickers bar!”  
“You shouldn’t have candy in here anyway. He could have choked on the wrapper.” Arcee breathed a sigh through her nose.  
“But he’s still a thief and I swear the green Accuratius brats were laughing at me!”  
“They probably were because you were stupid enough to get robbed on land by a creature with no legs. How you didn’t hear him get out I have no clue.”  
“Ya know Prowl can get out and I told ya before that he likes candy.” I smirked and he pouted. “Hey if ya eat in front of him and don’t share he’s gonna snatch it. I learned that back when I first met him.”  
“It’s not fair.”  
“It was fair.”  
“How?!”  
“You brought in candy, which you’re not supposed to do. You didn’t hear a mer jump up and drag himself down the steps and to the the cart, snatch a candy bar and make his way back to the steps while you were about only ten feet away. It’s fair. Now we need to tell Ratchet and Aid that you were stupid enough to bring in candy and let Prowl get ahold of it. Candy can’t be good for him.”  
“But- but- but-” Blurr sputtered as Arcee dragged him off.  
Yeah… I would always love this place.


	9. And Here It Comes!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day of the attempted merge is drawing in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> eah! My Birthday was spent eating lasagna, bluemoon icecream cupcakes and watching movies. Well that was my life enjoy!

Several days of what felt like wasted time. Several more days with Prowl making me learn his language rather than the other way around. Several days of Blaster laughing his ass off at me. I was about ready to throw in the towel. Sure I knew that I wouldn’t be gone for long if I did get frustrated enough to walk out, but it would be a great couple of days. I already knew how they would go. I would spend those days ignoring calls, listening to music, playing video games, and eating to my heart's content. Then I would come back and be back to this. But I wasn’t at that point yet. So here I was. Writing and rewriting symbol after symbol. Percy and Jack were having a field day with our notes on what these symbols translated to. I didn’t know exactly what they were doing with them, but I assumed they were trying to find a pattern or compare them to already know symbols and mer mythology or something. Whatever it was they were doing was going to be brought up to some serious big wig scientists and theorists at some point I was sure. Hopefully by then Prowl would be out of here and making a new home out in the ocean somewhere. I would miss him there was no doubt about that, but when it came around I didn’t want him being taken off somewhere and studied. He had already been through enough and he didn’t need anyone else poking and prodding at him.  
“Ok. Done. How about we have some fun now, huh? Puzzles are great. Lets put together some puzzles. Or we can eat some candy. I’ll go get one of those mixed packs with kitkats, m&ms, and snickers.”  
“Yeah he’s not going for it.” Blaster responded as he just shoved another carved coral piece at me before pointing to the seashell.  
“Come on, Prowls. Doesn’t it at least Sound fun?”  
“Jazz, your education is far more important than some candy and puzzles.” Blaster scolded mockingly. “You know if you learn enough words or at least get enough of them written down then we could write him a message to get him to understand that we’re trying to teach him Our language. And the more you get down the quicker that’ll happen. So get writing.”  
“How about You waste all day writing nonsense and then ya can try and say that again.”  
“It’s not nonsense. This is a real language of the sea here. And you’re the first to learn it so you should feel privileged.”  
“Oh whatever. Besides as excited as I am that we could eventually speak to Prowl I really don’t want him stuck being interrogated and gawked at by people. I know the media would eat this up as much as some serious people in the scientific and marine fields, but in turn so would the public and… Prowl doesn’t deserve that. He’s been through enough.”  
“I wouldn’t worry. Ratchet will keep people away if we can’t.”  
“Yeah I suppose you’re right on that.” I laughed softly.  
“After all this is a sanctuary for injured and ill mers. This isn’t a zoo you know!” Blaster did his best impression of Ratchet and I had to admit that lifted my spirits quite a bit along with pushing away my worry.  
The people here were good. They cared for the mers. No matter how they acted they were worth protecting. No matter how damaged they were worth saving. Even if they seemed like they wouldn’t make it no matter what they did they would at least try. They wouldn’t let anything happen to Prowl. They’d fight it if they pestered him or tried to take Prowl away. I suppose this was why I liked the people here so much. The people here put some of my faith back in humanity. The faith I had lost through the years. What was eighteen years with neglectful and controlling parents compared to what I could do with the rest of my life? Sure most of the friends I would make here would be fish- mammals, but what did that matter in the long run? Maybe one day I could be fluent in Prowls language. At least writing anyway. Being able to talk to mers whenever would be pretty neat.  
“So the big days tomorrow.”  
“Huh? Oh. Right. I hope Prowl doesn’t rip their heads off or something. He really doesn’t seem to like them from long distance. I can’t imagine how he’s going to like them close up.”  
“Eh. Prowl’s pretty level headed. He won’t go and attack them. I really don’t think it will end in violence this time around. I think the odds are good.”  
“With how things are going I don’t think they’d hurt him either, but that leaves things up to Prowl and ya know how stubborn Prowl can be. If he says no he Never changes his mind.”  
“Bribe him with a few m&ms every once in awhile to be nice and see where it goes.”  
“I don’t think that will work out. If anything he’d take them anyway and still say no. He’d think I owe him for putting him in that situation.”  
“Oh yeah. Well prepare for the worst and hope for the best then. The sooner he makes nice with one of the other pods here the sooner he gets out. Well after he teaches you how to write.”  
“I know how to write.”  
“Well he doesn’t think so. And what I mean is if things go well then we might have some more time with him to teach you his language. He’s the only one that’s actually tried or at least been willing to try and teach the language. At least to our knowledge. Maybe there is someone out there speaking and living with the mers or whatever, but this will be the only time it’s documented.”  
“Who would have thought my seeing Prowl on a rock back in highschool would lead to this?”  
“I know. Life really is something else.”  
“The funny thing is I really thought that Prowl was an annoyance back then. I was walking home and then I ended up feeding him because he was too injured to hunt. Now I can’t picture my life without him there.”


	10. Things Happen!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prowl gets put into the merger.

Today was the day. Prowl was compliant as always when we started securing him to be moved. Though he did look a little irritated when we woke him up right after he settled to do so. But he made no efforts to fight us or make it any harder. Just gave us a look that effectively said ‘really?’ before huffing and letting us do what we wanted with him. His neighbors however were more interested. Scavenger was making little sounds and pacing. They all looked a little worried, but Scavenger was the most obvious. They had hissed at Arcee when she entered as per usual now. They didn’t like her any longer after she had taken the art stones. Then they grew quiet when others came in. It seemed they caught on that this wasn’t a tank cleaning or a usual check up so now they were observing more closely. They’d change their tune when we put them in with Prowl and Prowl… Well I had no doubt that he wasn’t going to be happy.  
The moment we put Prowl in the merger he gave us a questioning look, but didn’t seemed too bothered. We gave him half an hour to get himself settled before we started moving the others. They gave us a little more trouble, but were much more compliant than they could have been. They obviously didn’t like the idea of being moved, but maybe it was the hope that they would get to see Prowl if they didn’t cause too much trouble. Arcee had wisely stepped back and let us handle them on our own. All in all it was a rather smooth move. One by one they were put into the merger.  
Prowl was not happy. His scales had puffed out and he had a low growl when he saw us coming in with them. He hissed aggressively at Scavenger when he was dropped in. Scavenger however just made a little chirping sound and looked rather happy despite the threat. Thankfully he didn’t try to move any closer to Prowl. We waited a minute before we dropped in Hook. Hook was much calmer than his other pod members so he stayed close to Scavenger.No change so in went another and the process continued until they were all in.  
Prowl was tense. His posture was quickly shifted from offensive aggression to defensive, but the others made no moves or gestures to show that they noticed. They seemed rather happy. We simply watched. Cliff and Arcee were pretty relaxed as they watched so that put me at ease. No calls were made yet, but they didn’t appear to be worried that they were going to attack. Prowl however was unpredictable when he wanted to be so until he backed down no one was leaving. It was just a precaution as no one really believed that they were going to fight. Prowl wasn’t stupid and he knew he was outnumbered. As for the others they hadn’t shown Prowl any form of aggression or anger in weeks.  
The stare down was long, but that was a usual occurrence. None of them seemed to want to test the waters. At any move Prowl would hiss at them. Then when he was sure they weren’t going to move he moved to the glass and stared at me. Yeah he was not happy. He didn’t look Pissed, but it was painfully obvious he was blaming me. If anything he looked unamused at the moment. Definitely upset, but I didn’t think he would try and drown me or anything. I sighed after several minutes of this staring contest. He hadn’t blinked yet and I swear he was going to burn a hole into me like this.  
“This isn’t a punishment, Prowl. Ya need to move on and get out of here before we have people swarming ya because you’re so smart. This will help ya heal, ya know. I promise.”  
My little pep talk didn’t have any effect. The staring contest went on for another minute before one of the other mers made a sound. Prowl turned briefly to hiss at whoever made the sound before rounding back on me.  
“Can’t ya at least Try and make nice? I mean they aren’t trying to kill ya or anything. They even seem to like ya.”  
Prowl growled softly before turning back to his new roommates. Then he moved back to his chosen corner to hide himself in the coral and flora.  
“Well I think that went well. Lets let them sit for a while. We need to have someone watching them until further notice though. Just a natural precaution.” Arcee spoke up after a second.  
“I don’t think they need it, but its protocol. So who wants to take the first shift?” Cliff asked as he looked around.  
444444444444444444444 The Fours Have Taken Our Pizza!4444444444444444444  
Prowl would hiss at them anytime they tried to get closer. He would ignore them as he worked on digging himself another nest. He’d wait until they got their ration of the fish at feeding time until he snatched his own before returning to his corner. It only happened a few times before they started bringing his over to him. Or at least as close as they could get. Prowl had at first refused to eat it and I was worried he was going to try and starve himself, but he ate once they all had their backs turned. He didn’t want them watching him eat it for whatever reason and I didn’t much care for it so long as he was eating.  
His scales were starting to look dull in several places as he wasn’t grooming himself and that was what worried me. I hoped that once he was done making his nest that he would start to groom himself again. Blaster reassured me that if it went on too long we’d pull him out for a while to groom him ourselves or Ratchet would order it at some point. It took a while for scales to rot so he would be ok. No one here would let it get to that point. No one was afraid of Prowl and everyone approached Prowl without fear of being attacked. Blurr was the only one who had a slight sore spot, but it passed rather quickly and even he found it funny that Prowl had stolen his snickers bar now. Prowl was going to be fine.


	11. I'm Late!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prowl bites and Jazz gets wet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Double the chapter content this time! I was doing homework and what not. I was drowning in college work, but here you go!

“Oh come on. Really? Really?” I asked as I watched Prowl retreat back to his new nest.  
I was soaked. Prowl didn’t even look back at me and I now knew what Blurr meant when he said he swore the ‘green Accuratius brats’ were laughing at him. It was this kind of hissing snicker from some of them and the others didn’t even bother trying to hide their own amusement. I suppose I should have seen it coming in a way. I’d probably do something similar if I was stuck in a situation like this. Actually I’d probably do something much more damaging that splashing some water.  
“Ok fine. I get it. I deserve it. I know. I’m sorry, but this is for the best. You’ll see.”  
Prowl didn’t even poke his head back out. Great. I was being shunned again. Back to square one. Only this time I had him drenching me every time I passed by. Just great. Life just keeps getting better and better I swear…  
“Fine. I was gonna try and make it up to ya. I brought some puzzles and some candy.”  
No reaction.  
“Come on, Prowl. Prowl. Prowls. Hey. I’m not just going to let ya ignore me this time. I’ve got all day. Prowl. Prowler. Prowls. Prow-”  
And I got a reaction. Not one I would have prefered, but it was a reaction. He had left his nest only to splash more water at me. A whole tail full came down on me and there came the laughing again.  
“I guess that means you’re not it the mood.”  
Prowl just huffed at me with a cold stare that, to me, said obviously.  
“Don’t look at me like that. This wasn’t My idea. Sure I supported it a little, but just a little. This could really be good for ya. Having a pod again. Finding a new nest. Doesn’t that sound great? It has to be better than sitting in here all day. Ya ain’t leaving until you’ve got yourself a pod and we’re sure you’re not going to get yourself killed.”  
Prowl growled softly at me and turned away.  
“Would ya quit pouting? Lets make some puzzles to lift your mood instead. It was given the ok even. Sure they think you’ll be more willing if you’re not pissed at everyone, but Blaster and I know ya and how stubborn ya can be so tough luck for them and more fun for us, huh?”  
He was making some sounds under his breath and I was sure now he was muttering something about me.  
“Whatever insults you’re saying I really don’t care right now. I came here to lift your spirits and I’m dealing with being soaked and cold for ya so what is it? Are ya in or out?” I shook the bag of m&ms in my hand.  
He stared at me from the corner of his eye before shooting up with a swift and calculated flick of his tail. I grinned and made my way up to where my mer friend was waiting. His roommates watched us from their side of the tank. They didn’t seem thrilled, but they didn’t make a move against me like Barricade had. Just paced the invisible line of territory that Prowl had been sure to make once he was sure we were leaving him in there every once in awhile. It was kind of funny that they didn’t dare to cross it now. At least not when Prowl was paying attention.  
444444444444444444 The Fours Have Control Of Our Ice Cream Shops!44444444444444444  
The Accuratius mers were building another nest. It didn’t take them long compared to other mer types. It was big and had high ridges with a few holes along the side of the tank to see out of the tank. It was the only way we could see into the nest. It was built along the glass with sturdy rock and coral. It was actually rather impressive from the outside. Beautiful even and it made us all wonder what they inside looked like. They were in and out of it. Dragging out the excess and bringing in seagrass and other flora. They switched off their little tasks. Whoever wasn’t working on the nest was making more art stones from what they were dragging out. Prowl was ignoring it all as per usual. The seagrass that hid his nest didn’t so much as twitch.  
Then one afternoon it all stopped. They were inching closer to the invisible line that divided their territory. Prowl was growling threateningly. His greying scales were quivering as they slowly puffed out as they crossed the line. They made little sounds. They didn’t do much to quell Prowls rising temper, but they kept going anyway. Then they left the art stones close to his nest in the sand. Prowl didn’t spare them a glance as he growled at them. They made a few more sounds before backing off a little. Scavenger made little chirping noises as Prowl looked them over warily. Then he knocked them away with his tail with a hiss. They retreated, but didn’t take the stones back with them. They did however growl and hiss at anyone who even looked at them from outside the tank. We weren’t permitted to touch them or go in the tank unless we were cleaning it or tending to an injured mer. No one wanted to mess with them should they be a key to them merging at some point.  
Then next morning Prowl was watching carefully from his nest. He was waiting for the right moment to grab his breakfast so they didn’t have an excuse to invade his territory again. But no. They were in a tight circle around what had been given before they broke off. They brought the fish to their own nest. Prowl slowly and carefully moved along the bottom to the edge of their invisible line. His tail was twitching like that of an angry cat and his wing fins pressed tightly to his back as he glared at his roommates nest. When they did reappear they eagerly approached the line. Prowl had a low growl building in his chest as they stopped just a few feet away. Then they offered the fish. They had neatly stripped it from the bone and seemed rather proud.  
Prowl was unswayed. But after a tense moment he snatched it from them and they made quiet little sounds of glee. Prowl looked it over warily and took an experimental bite before begrudgingly eating the strips of fish. He looked up occasionally at them when they didn’t leave. They had just lowered themselves to the sand as well and watched. Things were ok. That is until they tried to get touchy. They had reached over and Prowl had snapped at them with a hiss. A couple of them had gotten a few of the dying scales while Bonecrusher had gotten his hand bit. They didn’t counter or anything. Just pulled their hands back. Bonecrusher didn’t even seem that bothered that Prowl had bit him. He was more annoyed that Hook was looking it over. Of course that got him a trip to the medbay which he was even more irritated with.  
Despite the mild attack the merge wasn’t called off. They had seen worse and kept at it apparently. They had stepped over the line and Prowl had given them a warning. That was it. At least that was what Arcee said.  
After that they hadn’t tried to touch him again. They did however keep calling to him and circling their own nest. No doubt trying to get him to enter the opening and check it out. The others they had made when they were in separate tanks had one side open for Prowl to see and now it was all closed off besides a few holes for light and strategically put to check for danger. Prowl didn’t take the bait. He just ignored them as per usual. However they continued to swarm breakfast and dinner to force Prowl to interact with them. It seemed that every day they dropped it further and further from the line forcing Prowl to inch further into their territory. Prowl was not pleased by this at all. But he kept going in for the simple necessity. Growling at them when they were too close and they would back up.  
They had taken to surrounding him when he ate and so long as they didn’t touch him or get too close he would ignore it. Just let them circle him and watch for danger that wasn’t there. It was the same each day. They risked pulling out a scale here and there knowing Prowl would bite them if they weren’t quick enough. So far Bonecrusher was the only one he had caught. It seemed that they weren’t going to try and kill each other anytime soon so minus the possibility of one of them getting their hand bitten the stress was pretty low.  
444444444444444444 The Fours Are Taking A Hot Chocolate Break4444444444444444444  
Things were rather calm and quiet in the facility. Prowl was eating right outside their nest now, but anytime they just left it in their nest to lure him in he would just jump up onto the feeding stand and then go steal some or pester Blaster and I for something. So outside the nest was the closest they could get him to go. But other than the growling nothing had really happened. Then came an ‘inspector’. He worked for one of the people who helped fund the facility and one of the risks to Prowl. Prowl had made it clear from the first time he met him that he didn’t like him. He came in from time to time. Only about once every three months for an update on the mers and the facility in general. However with how things were going with all of the discoveries he was being sent in more and more. I never bothered to learn his name and I didn’t want to. All he did was get Prowl upset when he came in. And now the Accuratius were getting aggressive and irritated just because Prowl was getting upset. The only difference was they snapped at anyone who came near the tank. Not just when He came by. Prowl would retreat to his nest with a growl at a pace that suggested he was reluctant to back down, but felt he had to. He didn’t even bother shooing his roommate's away when they circled his nest.  
Prowls actions brought a lot of questions and I wasn’t sure what was causing it. However if Prowl didn’t trust him then I just knew that we couldn’t either. Thankfully I wasn’t the only one that didn’t like the guy. Excluding Blaster, Arcee and Cliff gave the guy glares whenever he turned his back. Blurr gave him bored looks and talked like he would rather be doing anything else, but talk to him at that moment. Ratchet treated him like a pest, but then again he did that to anyone who was in his medbay without a real reason to be. Maybe seeing what we could find on the guy wouldn’t such a bad idea. If he was a threat to Prowl or any of the mers here something needed to be done about it. I could ask around here a bit, but the info would be limited. A little manipulating when it came to my oh so wonderful parents I would have everything on him. What I would have to give up in return I wasn’t sure, but I was sure I could tilt things in my favor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> But seriously! Three parts! 30 chapters in total! I didn't think I was going to pass one!


	12. Welcome to the chapter where Jazz Fucks himself over!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jazz Fucks himself over just like the chapter title says.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all of the reviews so far. I look at reviews whenever I fell really down and they never fail to make me smile!

And here we go. I sighed. I was hoping that I would never have to come back here after stealing the puzzles and saying goodbye to Nancy, but things never seemed to work out in my favor. One call to the house and a small chat with Liza on how things were going and I had the date of when my parents would be back in town. The Never call mom and dad when they were away rule was still very much in place and I didn’t need to piss them off when I needed something. I had called them with complaints with their attempts to bait me many times and Blaster had told me over and over not to call them and just ignore it. I couldn’t help hesitating. I felt ridiculous. I was in the closest thing to neat and classy clothing wise that I had and standing at the front door staring at it like it was my worst nightmare. Another sigh and I was knocking on the door. I didn’t have to wait long.  
“Jazz. What are you doing here?”  
“Hey, Liza. I need to talk to my parents unfortunately. Do ya think ya could ask if they’d be willing to grant me an audience and all that rubbish?”  
“What did they do now? You know you don’t have to react to anything they say or do. They’ll leave you alone eventually if you quit reacting.”  
“That’s easier said than done. But this time I need a favor. It’s not about Them.”  
“A favor? You don’t want to go down that rabbit hole. You’ll never come back up.”  
She looked horrified and I couldn’t really blame her. But I had to do this. This guy was trouble. I needed everything I could on Shane Leach. The guy was arrogant and cocky. A real bastard and whoever he worked for was a mystery and was never brought up by name. No hints to gender. Prowl had to know him from somewhere with the way he was acting and it wasn’t good.  
“I know it seems bad, but without a little help the mers where I work are going to be is some serious trouble. It’s not good.”  
“There has to be somewhere else you could go.”  
“We need some strings pulled, Liza, or we’re gonna sink and the mers are gonna suffer.”  
She sighed and seemed just that much older from her expression of worry. “Don’t get yourself in too deep. Be careful. Please.”  
“I will. I promise.”  
Then she stepped aside and allowed me in. I sat in one of the chairs by the door and she ascended the staircase. I looked around. Nothing had changed a bit not that I expected it to. It was dull. Too perfect. It didn’t look lived in down here. It looked fake. Like a perfect dollhouse. Our bedrooms were the only things that looked and had a homey feeling. It was why I never took friends home. It was too cold here. There was always this expectation even when they were gone. The one time Blaster was here he came of his own accord when I didn’t text him during the day when I didn’t go to school. I always texted him at lunch when I stayed home. He came snooping and Nat and I had been ‘needed’ for some event. After all we were still home schooled as far as their ‘friends’ knew. I wasn’t sure what it was for, but we were stuck chatting and playing nice with rich bastards and stuck up brats all day at an over the top party with boring music.  
I had been lounging on my bed exhausted from the event and with all of those leeches sucking the life out of me. All they did was brag I swear. Then Nancy had knocked on my door and asked if I knew a kid named Blaster and that he was at the door asking for me. I had brought him up and we had a conversation on my ridiculous suit that I had been wearing at the moment and I had vented about the party. Then I had changed and he brought me to his house to play video games and had a sleepover because I didn’t want to be at the mansion anymore. Blasters house felt more like home than the mansion had.  
“Jazz? Fuck are you doing back here? With how much mom and dad have been bitching about you and your behavior I thought I was never going to see you again.”  
“Hey, Nat. Still a bitch?”  
“Yep. Still a rebellious prick?”  
“To my core.”  
“Wonderful.” She drawled.  
“So how's Davey boy doing?”  
“Eh. He’s…”  
“He’s a tool. I think ya had it better with Vince, Nat. He was a decent guy.”  
“He was boring.”  
“He had his shit together.”  
“Which made him boring. And moms trying to set me up with Ray. You know the Booker’s kid?”  
“Yeah. He’s an asshole.”  
“Yep. I was thinking of Jake though instead.”  
“He’s an asshole too.”  
“He’s got a motorcycle.”  
“Still an asshole. Just one with a bike.”  
“Oh whatever. Do You have a girlfriend?”  
“Nope. Can’t afford one if they’re all like ya. And your hooker friends of course.”  
“Of course not. Your a dirt poor peasant now.”  
“Am not. I have a job that pays pretty good.”  
“That’s what I thought. Peasant. Is that why you’re here? Need cash?”  
“Nope. Wrong again. I need info.”  
“Info? Go to google. Not our parents you moron.”  
“I need info on a certain person and his mystery employer that may or may not be legal depending on what’s going on.”  
“Ah. So who’s the sucker that you’re gonna ruin the life of?”  
“Never said anything about damaging anything.”  
“Well you never said anything about ruining the lives of my exs for a week. I wouldn’t put it past you to damage some guys out in the real world that wronged you.”  
“It’s great to know ya think so highly of me.” I deadpanned.  
“Hard not to with someone like you as a brother.” She turned to leave, but paused to look over her shoulder. “Oh and one more thing. Try not to screw yourself over here. Ask yourself whether or not this is worth it. I don’t doubt they’ll leash you.”  
“I know. It’s hard to forget when I’m talking to one of their dogs.”  
“I may be a dog, but life’s pretty good.”  
I didn’t bother responding to that and just let her go. We really were from different worlds despite growing up together. We did have a conversation though. It wasn’t the nicest, but at least there weren’t any awkward silences this time.  
“Your parents are willing to see you. They’re in your father’s office.”  
I simply nodded and headed up. When I reached the door I knocked firmly enough to let them know I meant business, but not loud enough to really piss them off. They didn’t like loud noise after all. The almost bored sounding ‘you may enter’ almost made me want to turn back around and say screw it, but no. I couldn’t. So I took a breath, made a mental note to talk Proper, entered and took a seat in the chair in front of the desk. The one many of their victims had sat in before me.  
“Father. Mother. How have the both of you been doing?”  
“We have been well.” Father barely glanced at me from over his laptop.  
“We missed you at the last party. You the Canelles daughter would have gotten along nicely.”  
I returned my mother’s fake smile with one of my own.  
“I have been very busy as of late so you will have to forgive me for my absence.”  
“Ah yes. Your job working with fish. I suppose that would be hard work. I will never understand why you decided to work there of all places.”  
“It pays well and I have grown quite fond of the people there.”  
“Really? It really makes me sad that you have to be around such people. I bet they know nothing of what living is really like. None of them will ever ascend to where we are.”  
“I suppose not. However I have come to enjoy their company. Leroy was such a bore.”  
“The Whites boy. I remember him. He is set to become an accountant to assist his father. His older brother is going to be the one to inherit the business. The first child always does.”  
I swore this was going to kill me. My father had barely looked at me and now I was practically walking a tightrope talking to my mother. One mistake and this could all be over and they might deny me everything out of spite. I may have been able to get away with it when I was a kid, but not now. Not with how things have been. I wanted to get this over as quickly as possible.  
“It would have been better for us to introduce you to his elder brother, but the age difference would have never worked then. The older you get the less age matters so now I am sure you could both find something in common.”  
I was about to respond, but thankfully my father closed his laptop and got right to the point.  
“What is it that you want? Surely you have not come to chat.”  
“I have not.”  
“So what do you want then? Is real life so hard that you have finally come to your senses and have decided to return home?”  
“No. I need information.”  
“On who?”  
“A man who calls himself Shane Leach. He works for someone who is helping to fund the facility I work at.”  
“And what dare I ask are you looking for?”  
“I need everything you can find on him and his mystery boss.”  
“And what are you willing to give in return? Surely with the life you’ve been leading you cannot pay for this information. Otherwise you wouldn’t have come.”  
“Name your price.”  
That got me a smile and once again I felt like I was making a horrible mistake.  
“We shall see what we can find. We will be in touch. You may go now.”  
“Of course. Until next time. Father. Mother.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok I have a short story to tell everyone. I came home after being out like all day and I fell back halfway on my bed, phone in hand, shoes on right. Well I sighed and closed my eyes for a second and passed out for two hours and woke up in the same position. I think college sucks the life out of people...


	13. And Things Happen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jazz talks to Shane Leach and Prowl bites the hand that feeds him.

I was waiting for my parents to call me. Prowl was really on edge with the way this asshole was hanging around all the time now. That led to the others getting aggressive and just made our jobs a whole lot harder. Then of course the guy had to insult us on our abilities to handle our mers. His voice was way too high pitched for a guys I swear. It was like he was trying to sound cheery all the time though you knew that he had it out for you. Just listening to him was giving me a headache. He walked around like he owned the place and there was nothing we could do about it.  
Prowl simply refused to leave the water now. His scales were always puffed out when the guy was around and he would hiss whenever he got too close from within his nest. He never came out at all anymore. The Accuratious would bring him his meals right to his nest. One would get the fish while the others patrolled around Prowls nest. Their own scales puffed in aggression and their fangs bared at everyone who came by. That meant that we hadn’t been able to clean the tank in a while and we would have to drug them up soon to do it. We’d need to get Prowl out of the tank to start pulling out scales soon too. We were going to be pulling out scales by the handful at this rate. We didn’t need Prowl’s scales rotting and him getting sick on top of the stress.  
I really wanted to be able to push the guy out of the door. All of these questions on what was going on. All of the notes. It shifted more toward Prowl every day.  
‘And they made these designs?’  
‘They have their own written language? Is there evidence to support this?’  
‘How long has this been going on?’  
‘This is the mer that has supplied these markings?’  
‘How long has he been here?’  
‘When and where was your first encounter with this mer?’  
‘And it Escaped the traps?’  
Question upon question. Note upon note. He was staring at Prowl half the time and I was starting to fear what they were going to do. I never had wanted to hear from my parents so much in my life. I needed this information as soon as possible. I needed to make sure that Prowl was going to be ok. In order to protect him though I needed to know what I was protecting him from and how. Then of course Blaster and I came up during one of his little ‘interviews’ and how we had found him. So we ended up having to talk to the guy. Blaster had been his first target. Blaster had been rather cold toward him and gave as little information as possible I’m proud to say. His clipped answers had really annoyed him I’m sure.  
“What do ya want?”  
“I would like to talk about the mer that has given us access to their language.”  
“Of course ya do. That’s all ya want to talk about.”  
“Is that a problem?”  
“Yes. Having ya here is bothering him.” I spoke bluntly as I gestured to the hissing mer.  
“One would think that with how long he has been here that he would be more accustomed to people.”  
“He’s a wild mer that had his pod destroyed by people. He’s not some pet. Of course he’s going to be upset by new people.”  
Prowl didn’t mind people coming. He didn’t care about the people that came in with deliveries. He didn’t care about the inspector that came in. He didn’t care about some of the employees kids and spouses coming in. Hell he even followed the kids along the glass wall curiously and boy did the kids have fun with that. It was only Him that bothered him. It was only this shady creep that made him act like this.  
“Most mers become comfortable enough with people that they don’t act so aggressively in such facilities within a few months.”  
“Prowl’s not most mers.”  
“No he is not.”  
For some reason the way he said that and looked at Prowl was putting me on edge. It was like there was something behind the words. Some hidden meaning that I couldn’t find.  
“A lot of the mers here aren’t comfortable with people being so close and the way ya keep staring at him would bother anyone mer or not.”  
He didn’t give me a response and just walked away with a grin. One of the most disturbing things that had happened was when Prowl had started hiding in his neighbor's nest when he came by. The one that he had been avoiding going into the entire time that he had been in there with them. They guarded the nest with such ferocity that we had to drug them later that day to clean the tank and pull Prowl out. That was the only time he had actually fought us. He simply did not want to leave the water. He had thrashed and pulled and had even bit Cliffs hand when they got him on the gurney to take him to the medbay. He hadn’t broken the skin, but there was enough pressure to get his point across that he didn’t want to go anywhere. However one sedative given near his wing fin and he had let go.  
His wing fins twitched as we worked on pulling out all of the dead scales. He whined more the longer he was out. He had buried himself into my stomach when I moved to comfort him. The black, white, and grey skin under the scales was soft and vulnerable, but very warm. Handfuls of scales were pulled out and Ratchet had cursed under his breath about him not taking care of himself. There was no sign of any of the scales rotting, but the amount of scales that were going to regrow would have left him extremely vulnerable out in the ocean. The moment he was back into the water he fled to their nest again and we didn’t see him the rest of the day.


	14. But Wait! There's More!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jazz gets a call from his parents.

It was a couple of days later that I got a call from my parents. Of course it was during the work day. I figured that they would do something like that just to cause me problems. And they said I was the childish one. I took said call by the merger as I watched Prowl peek out of his own nest at the new sound. Normally I kept my phone off during the day, but this was one call I couldn’t miss. The sight of Prowl showing some signs of curiosity rather than fear and unease brought a brief smile to my lips. I took a second to brace myself before I answered.  
“Hello?”  
“Jazz, we have what you desire.”  
“Alright. I’ll be over at around five.”  
Then the call ended. Brief and cryptic as always. I spent a second glaring at my phone. I really didn’t want to go back to the mansion so soon. I hated my parents, but at least they were careful. The curious sound brought my smile back as I turned to face Prowl.  
“I’m fine, Prowl. We’re gonna get this thing sorted out soon. I’m gonna get rid of that guy that keeps pestering ya if it kills me.”  
44444444444444444 The Fours Are Making Convincing Speeches!4444444444444444444444444  
I was met by Nancy at the door. She looked just as concerned as Liza had the last time I came here. She sighed before stepping aside.  
“Your parents are expecting you. Go right up.”  
“Thanks, Nancy. And don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”  
“I really hope that’s the truth.”  
Up the stairs I went with Nancy watching me with all the concern of a mother whose child was getting in with the wrong crowd. It was really sad that our two maids were more like parents to us than our real ones. They came to our school plays and graduations while our parents were out doing who knew what. Even more so that said maids felt they needed to protect us from our own parents. I knocked on the polished door and entered before taking a seat in the chair of death. I was reluctant to make the first move.  
“What do you have for me?”  
“We can give you his complete history including where he’s been and done out of state, how much he’s paid, who he works for, where he works, and if you really want to get into his personal life, hobbies, what he does in his free time, birthday, where he lives, who his family is, love interests, and who he’s related to about six generations back and more.”  
“Great. So I assume that this is where you decide what my Payment is for this?”  
“You assume correctly.”  
And there was the feeling of dread again. “What do you want?”  
“You’ll be coming to the party this weekend to help promote our cause. It will be much more effective should the entire family attend.” My mother smiled. “The appearance of a perfect family does wonders.”  
This was going to be a disaster. Whatever it was I was going to end up regretting it. There was no doubt about it when she had that look in her eyes.  
“What exactly Are you promoting this time? What is the cause?”  
“Oh it’s nothing that you need to concern yourself with at this moment. You just need to show up and act appropriate.”  
“One mistake and you can say goodbye to the information you need. We don’t trust you not to keep your end of the bargain if we give it to you now. It’s as simple as that. Now I expect you to be here at six pm sharp. We’ll have a suit ready for you and we will all leave together at six thirty. Now go.”  
And this was why I always back talked my father.  
“Yes of course. Have a wonderful evening.”  
My ride back to the apartment was filled with curses and scolding myself. One of these days I was really going to hit my father. He was probably going to sue me or do something else to ruin me and make my life hell, but I was starting to debate if seeing the look on his face when I send him to the floor would be worth it or not. What would mom do? Would Nat laugh? Of course she would laugh. Nat was Nat.  
“I have returned from the devil's den!” I announced as I opened the door to our apartment.  
“Good for you. Do you have it? What’s it say on the bastard?”  
“I don’t have it.”  
“What? Why not?”  
“My own parents don’t trust me. Can you believe it? I am So hurt right now. They think I won’t keep up my end if they give it to me.” I placed a hand on my heart as I fell over the back of the couch onto the cushions. “I have Never been so hurt in my entire life. I’m gonna cry a river.”  
“Uh, I think you’re screwed. Who’s to say they won’t give it to you ever?”  
“No one. But I’ll steal it or bribe Nat or something if push comes to shove. Of course I’ll have to do it before they leave again so they don’t take it out of state.”  
“What do they want you to do for it?”  
“Come to some stuck up party this weekend and promote whatever they’re selling. Their oh so wondrous cause needs to be spread, Blaster. I mean it’s so obvious! How can ya not know?!”  
“What is it exactly?”  
“I don’t fucking know. So did they ever catch the killer or did he get away again?”  
“He got away. Gotta wait another year for the next season.”  
“Oh come on. They had him cornered. Are they really that stupid?”  
“The answer is yes. The guy wouldn’t bloody shoot. Just kept yelling at him to put his gun down. One of those situations.”  
“Uh. This is why I hate the TV series’ now days.”  
“Wanna start another one?”  
“Fuck yeah.”


	15. Authors Note: I am so sorry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do not read if you are sensitive to cursing. There is one curse in this little note.

Dear readers,

I am so sorry. I didn't realize that I was going to cause so many people such distress. I didn't think much of it at the time when I was writing it. I figured that since a lot of people I know curse when upset that I didn't give it a second thought. I mean what could a couple of curse words do in the grand scheme of things and Shane was always referred to as a bastard by the staff due to his personality.

A review I got on my fanfiction account really opened my eyes on the matter. I didn't realize I was hurting people so much. We shouldn't be fighting each other. We shouldn't be cursing each other. There is too much negativity in the world and I use a lot of cursing in my writing and I don't even realize it because of how I'm cursed at and what people say around me.

I didn't think and I apologize. Once again I am so sorry for my thoughtlessness. I shouldn't have done that. All of you deserve better than that. I will try to be more sensitive to my readers in the future because though we will never meet all of you are individual people that matter and no one deserves to be disrespected in this manner.

Yours truly,

BrightDarkness


	16. And More

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jazz attends the party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I must thank you for the encouragement. I lost myself a little and had to pick myself back up. I want my writing to bring happiness and give people something to look forward to. Not cause distress. I appreciate all of the support and it is hard sometimes to remember the simple lessons of childhood like how you can't please everyone. Without further delay here is the next chapter! Enjoy!

I was dreading this. But if it got that freak off Prowls back then it would be worth it. It was just one party after all. I wouldn’t have to spend really any time with my parents during said party anyway. They’d be out manipulating the public and making whatever they were doing seem like a good cause to sucker people out of their money in a donation that they believed would help the world or whatever it was and not just line my parents pockets. Last party I went to it was something to do with helping to reconstruct a hospital. However five percent went to the hospital, fifty percent to whatever their little side projects were, and the remaining forty five went to line their own pockets and yet no one seemed to pick up on this no matter how long it went on. They could really seem friendly when they wanted to be. Everyone seemed to think that they were the most generous and selfless people they had ever met. It made me want to slap them and ask them how they were all missing this.  
The door opened before I even knocked, breaking my bitter train of thought. I was herded in and I only half listened to the whining and lecturing. Whoever is going to style your hair blah, you could have arrived sooner blah, do not talk about your job or personal life blah, and then there was something about posture and what language I could use. I was sure I arrived on time. I thought my speech was fine as I was trained along with Nat after years of being reprimanded on our speech and very accent when talking to our own parents. By the time everything was set and we were heading out in a awkwardly quiet limo I was painfully reminded why I hated this.  
This was too perfect and fake. The air in the limo was as hostile and cold as I remembered it to be. Nat and I were sitting in a far corner in the back together. As far from our parents as possible and I was hit with bitter nostalgia of what Nat and I used to be. Though instead of being glued at the hip in the same corner we were at opposite windows looking out at the passing scenery. At least she still prefered my company over our parents. That was at least something even if we would never be what we used to be. We didn’t even try to start up a conversation. The presence of our parents was just another barrier that we didn’t dare cross.  
I was about ready to jump out halfway there just to escape the tense air. When we finally pulled to a stop in front of what my sister and I had called mom and dad’s hall of torture I held my breath in anticipation. I desperately wanted out, but I had to wait. Wait for the driver to get out and open the door for us like we were royalty. He was taking far too long and I wanted to scream. However the relief of being out was easily overtaken by my intense desire to be anywhere but here once we were within the building. The building that our parents had specifically constructed long ago for them to show off art, items, decor, and host parties in. It was a gathering place for the rich families to swindle each other and come up with ideas to rip off the public together.  
Nat was off socializing with her stuck up friends from other stuck up families while mom and dad went searching for new prey no doubt. I found myself a secluded corner to pull myself back together in while everyone tried to impress each other. The music was classical and boring. I swore the guys playing it were bored. It had felt like a wonderful lifetime since the last time I had been to this hell. The forced smiles and cheery tone was killing me. These people… They were all so cold and arrogant. Narcissistic and just plain out boring. Everything was boring. Everything was the same. Everyone was the same. All clones. All carbon copies. I couldn’t tell the difference between most of them. Same hairstyle. Same clothes. Everything looked the same, felt the same. Besides a few minor differences there was nothing here that actually drew any attention.  
All of the parties were the same. The one for the construction of the bridge had been the same as the one for the private school and so on. Blaster was going to be stuck with me complaining his ear off when I got home. I mean word was I was helping one of their business partners overseas. It was going to take a while with all of the lies and rumors that were going around about me. Carl for some reason thought I was sick and dying. Brandon thought my parents disowned me for something and I had come crawling back. Garik was asking if I had gotten arrested. Mike wanted to know if I was really doing something overseas though I had just told him it was sensitive information and I couldn’t talk about it.  
Yeah I never missed this. I wasn’t even an hour in and I wanted to go home. All of this playing nice was killing me. It was just too quiet here despite all of the chatter and the boring music. Too bright. Too bland. No color. Tasteless food that cost as much as a house with how much there was. Too many people. It was too rigid. Everyone was stiff. The kids brainwashed and making small talk amongst each other or just staying quiet. Kids that were going to be out far later than they should and exhausted the following morning for their lessons. Teenagers and young adults flirting with each other due to their parents influence and desire to use familiy ties to rake in even more cash.  
It didn’t take much longer before my mother was calling me over. Lacey Canelles stood with my mother. I recalled very clearly how she said she thought we would get along together. She reminded me of a peacock while her younger sister reminded me more of a mouse. Lacey had curled golden hair and dark eyes. She always had someone holding her purse and anything else she brought with her like she was some princess. Lila however was a plain brunette with near matching eyes. Though they were warmer than her older sisters and her features were softer. Lacey was flaunted and Lila was left in her sister’s shadow and seemed rather happy to be there half of the time. The other half she just looked lonely.  
“Yes, mother? What can I do for you?” I smiled back at her.  
“You remember Lacey, don’t you? It has been such a long time since you’ve been home.”  
“Yes of course. How could I ever forget the Canelles families jewel. I trust you have been well?”  
I swore I could feel her ego growing as she answered. “I have been well enough. I can never seem to find appropriate help lately and my sister has been nothing, but a pain. Though it seems you have been better off than I. What exactly Have you been doing overseas?”  
“I would love to tell you, but the information is sensitive to my families business. You understand I hope.”  
“Such a shame.”  
“I will leave you both to catch up now. Have a wonderful evening, Lacey.”  
My mother seemed satisfied that I wouldn’t ruin anything for the families image. As much as I wanted her gone I didn’t want to be stuck in a conversation with Lacey either.  
“And to you as well.” Lacey nodded slightly at her departure before turning back to me.  
“I am sad to hear you have been having such a hard time lately. I can only hope that things get better for you.”  
I was looking for an escape. Anything at all that I could use as an excuse to leave. The conversation with her was just her complaining about how hard things were and her talking about clothes her parents were buying her and from where. It was getting harder and harder for me to act like I was interested in what she was saying when bloody Leroy White came to my rescue. He came in hitting on Lacey with the intent to spite me, but I just slipped away while he had no clue that he had just done me a huge favor.  
As the party moved along I got bits and pieces of information about what this was about from listening in to conversations. So far I had that they wanted to build some sort of building on the coast. It was a rather large construction and they had been building more and more of these in other countries. The more I listened and heard the more I grew suspicious. There was no way that my parents were building and supplying a nonprofit organization that cleaned the freaking water. That was bullshit. They wouldn’t help anyone without some form of benefit if their lives depended on it.  
444444444444444444 The Fours Have Army Cats!444444444444444444444  
I was about ready to slam my head into a wall by the end of the party. My head was pounding and I was more irritated that I had been in a long time. When we returned to the mansion and Nat was upstairs I rounded on my parents.  
“May I have what I came here for now?”  
“Why of course.”  
I didn’t like those smiles. It was predatory. Sly. A not so subtle hint that they knew something I didn’t. But I held my ground without a word as I was handed a plain folder. It was thin. Too thin. I opened it slowly without taking my eyes off of them. All that was in it was the guy's name and his family tree.  
“What are you playing at?”  
“Whatever do you mean? You asked for information and we are giving it to you.”  
“Don’t play stupid. This isn’t even Half of what you said you’d give me.”  
“You’ll get the rest of it. Don’t worry.”  
“Eventually.”  
“At another event. We’ll send you the details another day. Have a good night, Jazz.”


	17. More!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jazz screams, curses, and just throws a tantrum.

The first thing I did when I got in my car was scream. Then when I got home I screamed again. Loud. Pissed and without a care for anyone within range. My parents had done some really messed up and manipulative things, but This. This takes the cake by a landslide, eats it, and spits it out in my face. I had never hated them more than I did now. I had never hated Anyone this much in my life. This must be what all of their ‘partners’ felt like. The ones they screwed out of their business and or all of their money. Hatred. Defeated. Just plain out stupid. Of course they wouldn’t keep their end of the bargain. Of course they would screw me over. Of course they would go and do this to their kid without even a hint of remorse.  
“Fuckin- Damn leeches!”  
I flipped the cheap tv tray over and then knocked over a chair in my frustrated rant as I made my way to the couch. I promptly fell onto it and screamed into one of the pillows. My screaming was cutting through the music that was playing from Blasters room. I was sure it looked like I was throwing a tantrum- no I was totally throwing a tantrum like a three year old, but I honestly couldn’t care less. I just screamed my lungs out with curses and just plain screaming in an attempt to free myself of the frustration and pain I felt. I shouldn’t have expected anything less. Not even for me. Their own kid.  
“That bad, huh? Want to talk about it?”  
“Those fucking sorry excuses that I call my parents-”  
“Can’t understand you when your face first into a pillow.”  
I knocked the pillow off the couch instead of getting up, but Blaster didn’t make a comment on it. The sound of rock music playing in the background was actually nice given what I had been forced to listen to tonight.  
“Those sorry excuses that I call my parents ripped me off! I mean I should have expected it! I mean I’m not their kid or anything, right?! Of course they were going to screw me over! Fuck them! Fuck everything! I have never hated anyone more than I hate them right now!”  
“Wait they screwed you over? How bad are we talking here?”  
I just shoved the thin folder into his hands before I went back to screaming and cursing. I was going to be hurting by the time I was done. My voice was going to be gone. No doubt about it. Then I kicked the pillow at my feet off the couch just because I could. Blaster again didn’t make a comment on it and just opened the folder. There was silence besides the steady thrum of music coming from Blasters room. I couldn’t really make out any words through the closed door.  
“This is it?” Blaster finally spoke with some slight disbelief in his tone that made me want to scream again.  
“Yes. That is It!”  
“But I thought- oh shit.”  
“Yeah! They have more! They just won’t give it to me! They want me to jump for it like a starving dog for their amusement! Those lying bastards want me to do more shit for them! Not only that there are rumors going around about me like you wouldn’t Believe!”  
“If this keeps up the information isn’t going to be able to help us by the time we get it.”  
“I know! But what am I supposed to do?! I just need Something! Like just the name of who he works for and Bam! We’d be able to go from there! But I doubt they’d just give it to me! Hell it’ll probably be the last thing they give me!”  
“I think you should back out.”  
“They have something going on too, Blaster! They’re doing something and it has to do with the ocean!”  
“Jazz, we can find another way and if they are doing something harmful we’ll deal with it if it becomes a problem.”  
“If?! No it’s when! They expect me to believe that they’re funding a Nonprofit organization to Clean the ocean?! I don’t think so!”  
There was no way they were doing anything near the ocean that wouldn’t get them more money. Money was all they cared about. They didn’t hoard it like dragons did in fairytales with gold with how they tossed it around like it didn’t matter, but they Never poured any money into anything unless it was going to get them more money in return. And they took shortcuts. They bent rules until they strained, ready to break. If lines were crossed they bribed the authority and in the end got away with it. They were going to cause some real damage and they were going to get away with it.  
“It could be for their image. Maybe they did something or got caught doing something and need to get back into the public’s or their partner’s favor?”  
“Oh if that happened it would be Big! People would know and the rumors would Fly! No they are up to something and maybe I can’t get to Shane this way, we’ll find something else, but I can figure out what they are doing!”  
“Jazz, did you even stop to think that they’re just baiting you? That maybe it is innocent just to get you suspicious?”  
“Yes! But then I decided it didn’t matter on the way here and I needed to make sure!”  
“You’re letting yourself get dragged into this. You Need to let this go. We’ll figure something out. We have a whole facility of people to help us if things go bad. We’re not the only ones that care. They’re not just going to sit back and let whatever happens happen either.”  
“I know, but if I back out now… I don’t want to lose.”  
“For the love of… I’m going to bed. There’s pizza in the fridge. I’ll try to talk you out of it again tomorrow when you’re less… This.”  
“K. Night, Blaster.”


	18. Things Happen And Stuff!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jazz talks to his sister.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Raised by Bats by Voltaire came on while I was writing this and... I just thought that would be a fun little fact. :)

Blaster wasn’t happy with my choice. But quite honestly I didn’t care at the moment. I wasn’t either in a sense. I hated these events. These parties. Acting nice and watching what I said all the time. But I had to be here. They were up to something and for once they weren’t going to get away with it. They no doubt had a backup plan, but I could do this. I could take them down. I just had to be quicker. I could gather the evidence. They were going to pay for everything. There were too many people who had been used by them. Not only would it feel great to cause them some damage, but I could get that information they had on Shane if I was smart about this.  
“What are you doing brooding in this corner?”  
I looked up to my sister. She was looking at me with a slightly inquisitive look. She always had this annoyed air about her now days. No matter what was going on she always seemed annoyed or pissed. Kind of like how mom was when she wasn’t pretending to be cheerful and friendly. It just reminded me of how things had changed again.  
Making sure no one was paying us any attention in our corner. “Why does it matter what I’m doing? I figured that I was below your notice and concern by now.”  
“You know you shouldn’t have gone to our parents. You can’t say I didn’t warn you. I bet Li and Nanc gave you a lecture too.”  
“A little. So why does it bother ya so much?”  
“It doesn’t really. Just curious what would make you come back when it’s obvious you hate this so much. You seemed pretty happy with your peasant life. Why would you come back?”  
“I told ya this already. I need info and they won’t give it to me.”  
“Well you should have expected that. Also quit talking like you belong in the slums. If someone hears they’ll start talking and it’ll get to our parents either by mocking or by accident. Then they’ll get angry and I’m sure you know what happens when they get angry. They’ll do more that toast the info you need.”  
“I know I know. It’s much more difficult to keep talking like a spoiled brat for so long after all the freedom I’ve had. Saying and doing whatever I want felt pretty good.”  
“You can do whatever you want with mom and dad on your side too. You always did what you wanted when you were still living at home. Just paying your ‘mistakes’ away. Turning things into misunderstandings.”  
“Back then I just did it because nothing really mattered. Or trying to make things more difficult for mom and dad. They never bothered coming home to scold us for anything. Just told Nancy and Liza to scold us and you know how that went.”  
“Yes. Exactly. We can do whatever we want. Money is no object.We can do whatever we want. Go wherever we want. Get whatever we want. Why would you ever give this away? These parties they have are a small cost for all of the benefits. Once they get what they need out of these people the parties will stop until the next thing comes up. Could be months or could be a year or two. Minus our birthdays that always turn into a big thing. I don’t see what the problem is.”  
“It’s a gilded cage, Nat.”  
“The world’s a pretty big cage.”  
“You have to be in contact with them when you go anywhere. Make sure you check in with their secretary or whoever they are every day. Come back when they tell you to without a care of what you’re doing or why. Your life is always an act. Making sure that you don’t say anything that could cause damage to them all the time is exhausting. Acting so nice to everyone of these people is exhausting. I don’t want to be a- a doll they can take out and play with when they feel like it before tossing me away again like I don’t matter. They don’t care.”  
“Of course they don’t. No one actually does. Might as well have money and have fun.”  
“I like the people I’ve met. Outside of This of course. I trust them.”  
“Your little peasant friends don’t care either. Everyone uses everyone. No one actually cares about helping anyone. It’s an act to get what they want. Everyone just cares about money. Themselves.”  
“Fine, whatever. Lets agree to disagree there, ok?”  
“Fine.”  
“Fine.”  
“So want to try again and tell what you’re so worked up about? This info must be pretty valuable for you to endure this.” She asked again after a minute.  
“It is to me. I doubt knowing would do you any good.”  
“Doesn’t need to help me. Maybe I can help you out a little.”  
“Why would you want to help me?”  
“We were pretty close once upon a time. You’ve also really made a show out of making my ex's lives hell. Made me feel a whole lot better afterword. I think I can spare you a favor. If not for what we were then for getting my exs for me.”  
“... I doubt you’d know much.”  
“Try me.”  
“I’m trying to get information on a guy who’s being a really threat at my workplace. His name is Shane Leach.”  
“Wait, Shane? I know him. He works for that asshole in that big oh so important building on the west side on the coast. They’re doing something with mers and damn does he love to brag about it.”  
“Wait, what?”  
“Are you deaf now as well as poor?”  
“You Know him?”  
“Yep. My friends and I started calling him Screamer a while ago. Annoying little gnat isn’t he?”  
“How exactly do you know him?”  
“He works with mom and dad. Annnd the look you’re giving me is telling me they Really screwed you over. I told you not to come here for help.”


	19. Here We Are!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jazz tells Blaster about what happened. Blaster doesn't take it well.

“Blaster! Blaster, I was right!” I announced loudly as I entered the apartment. “They were lying and they are doing something! With mers! And the ocean! They’re going to do something- ow!”  
The apartment was dark and the first thing I did minus my shouting was whack my leg on something in the dark and then trip over something else to crash rather noisily on the floor. I hissed a curse before scrambling back up. Maybe we should organize and clean up a little… Na. This was way too important to be put off by some out of place items. I mean why put it away if we were going to bring it back out tomorrow?  
“They were probably never going to give me anything useful! He works with my parents! And I know where he works now! Kinda!”  
There was no answer as I opened the door to Blasters room. I flipped on the light and Blaster just groaned in response.  
“Blaster, this is important! Get up!”  
“Geez… What time is it?”  
“One am! Get up!”  
“Why? What is wrong with you?”  
My friend curled in on himself as if to protect himself from the light. I however just came up and took a seat on his bed with the same furious excitement I had since I left the party. I mean this was serious. Nat had given me some real information. And this was something that could have been the life of your mer friend. They were doing something that they shouldn’t be doing and we could catch them. We could stop them. We just needed evidence and bam. They would be screwed. I wouldn’t have to play along anymore. Prowl would be safe. That guy who kept making Prowl upset would be gone. This was Big.  
“This is important!”  
“Everything is important. Why are you even up?”  
“I just got home! Now ya need to hear this!”  
“What I need is more sleep. You do realize that we both work tomorrow? You should sleep while you can too.”  
“No time! The world could be ending as we know it! Right now!”  
“Did you drink anything weird at that gathering?”  
“What? No of course not! This is about Shane and my parents and what they’re doing and How they’re probably doing it!”  
“Couldn’t this wait until tomorrow?”  
“It Is tomorrow. Now wake up and listen! Quit falling asleep!” I shook him and he reluctantly pushed himself up.  
“I’m up. I’m up. What do you want?”  
“For the love of- Shane. Parents. Ocean. Mers. Prowl. Do. Ya. Get. It. Now?”  
“What about Shane? What did your parents do this time? Start from the beginning.”  
“Ok so I went to the party as ya already know. Nat, ya know my sister, came up to me and we started talking. A lot of us debating on what life is like and people. Then we got onto what I was looking for. Why I was there in the first place. Anyway we got onto how my sister and her friends, and I use that term loosely, knew Shane. He works with my parents, Blaster. And he brags a lot from what my sister said and he’s doing something with mers, which means my parents are doing something with mers. They’re targeting Prowl, Blaster, I know it. I mean a rare mer that’s smart enough and well tempered enough to learn things from us and be willing to teach us their language. He’s a freaking gold mine. They’re working with the guy who has that huge building, ya know the one that kind of looks like it doesn’t belong with how tall it is compared to the other buildings. That’s Shane’s boss. We need to do some recon. We need to figure out what they do in that building and more about the guy who runs it.”  
Blaster didn’t say anything for a minute after my rant. It was just him staring at me like he wasn’t really paying attention and me panting.  
“It’s about time you took a breath. I was wondering if you forgot to breathe.”  
“Blaster! Did ya even listen to anything I said?!”  
“Yes. Your parents are still lying assholes. Knew that. They’re screwing you over. Knew that from the get go. Shane’s an asshole too. We knew that. Everyone does. Then there’s a guy in a building that is Shane’s boss.”  
“Not just Any guy, Blaster! This guy is in that huge building on the west coast! They’re working with my parents or my parents are working with them!”  
“Great. That’s something to deal with when we wake up because oh look. It’s one am.”  
“They’re after Prowl! They have to be with how he’s skulking around and asking questions about Prowl!”  
“Again. We can’t do anything about it now. Because it is One AM. Who is going to be awake at this hour besides teenagers who have no care for school and drunks?”  
“Oh we could pay some teenagers to check the building out so they don’t know we’re on to them. I doubt they guessed that I would talk to Nat about it with how we treat each other.”  
“Jazz, I swear I am going to slap you.”  
“Why? It was a good idea?”  
And then Blaster pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh before standing up. Grabbing my arm he led me to the door.  
“Jazz. You’re my best friend. I love you, I do, but it is one am. I cannot deal with your crazy who knows what driven ideas right now. We can deal with this when we get up. We can bring some of this up to everyone at the facility if you want. But right now it is One Am. One in the morning and there is absolutely nothing we can do now. No one is up at this hour. No one reasonable who has to work or go to school anyway. Now go to bed or you’re really going to hate yourself tomorrow.”  
“Blaster-”  
“Good night.”  
Then the door closed, encasing me in the darkness of the rest of the apartment.


	20. I Am Back!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jazz and Blaster try to figure out who Shanes boss is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dang... It has been awhile...

I was exhausted. This sucked.  
“I told you that you were going to hate yourself this morning.”  
“Shut up, Blaster. It was serious.”  
“I know, I know. We’ll have to give the facility a bit of a heads up on what’s going on. But we have to making it believable. Running in there and saying that your parents are out to get you and are working with a guy who you assume is evil or whatever and are going to destroy the ocean and the mers or something isn’t going to go over well.”  
“I wasn’t going to say that.”  
“Of course you weren’t. No offense, but you get a little ahead of yourself when you’re emotionally invested in something. You don’t think over what you say before you say it. I suggest we tell them something they already know and back it up. Like how Shane and his boss are interested in the mers. They are probably going to want to study them, especially Prowl with what he’s shown us so far and see where that goes.”  
“Great. But how do we protect Prowl by telling them that?”  
“How would we protect Prowl by making all of them think we’re crazy until the last second?”  
“Touche.”  
“So are you going to unglue your head from the table and come to work?”  
“Yeah. Might as well be now or I’m not going to be able to convince myself to get up again at all.”  
I forced myself up and followed my friend out. He was at least in a much better mood this morning. Not thrilled to get up, but he wasn’t looking like he wanted to rip my head off.  
“Want to ride with me? Na you should come with me. Don’t want you passing out at the wheel or something. We don’t need to pay for any medical care right now. Savings or no we have a new game to pay for in like a month and I would rather have a nice amount of cash to be able to cushion the blow afterwards.”  
“Good to know I mean so much to ya. I can feel the love in every word ya say.” I responded dryly as I entered the vehicle.  
“I know. I am just so generous and amazing. Anyway back to the topic at hand. Let me do the talking when we get there ok?”  
“Fine. I get it you think I’m a nutcase.”  
“Not I think. You Sound like a nutcase. Well I suppose you being a nutcase is pretty accurate.” He made a show of thinking to himself and I made a very exaggerated noise of annoyance.  
“How did you word it last night? I don’t have time to deal with your crazy who knows what driven ideas right now?”  
“Says the nutcase.”  
“That’s what I was thinking last night.”  
“Uh no. You weren’t thinking at all last night. When you came in at one in the morning and decided to wake me up. I mean what did you think was going to happen?” He asked and I answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.  
“Um us going off and saving Prowl and destroying evil. Duh.”  
“Destroying evil… Right…”  
“Shut up, Blaster. I can hear ya insulting me.”  
“I didn’t say anything.”  
“Ya didn’t need to.”  
444444444444444444 The Fours Are.... Making Cookies???44444444444444444444  
“I guess it’s just You and Me now, Prowl.”  
I sighed as I leaned on the tank. Prowl was peeking out of his own nest to make eye contact with me, but once He came in he was going to disappear in his neighbor's nest until the next morning. He was always looking for him now. Always watching and on edge. Blaster was doing the talking and sent me away just to make sure I wouldn’t say anything stupid. But what could I possibly say that wouldn’t make any sense or put them off? Ok bad question.  
“And your new bodyguards of course. They’re a given though. Don’t ya worry though. Blasters talking to them and we’re gonna make sure that nothing happens to ya. Everything is going to be just fine. I Promise.”  
Prowl made a quiet huff at me, but nothing else.  
“What did I say? Why do ya get so pissy when I try and reassure ya? Ya don’t believe me or what? I am going out of my way to make ya feel better and you’re just throwing it back in my face. Hey! Don’t ya go back in there. I’m not done with ya.”  
And he was ignoring me again. Of course he was. This was an on and off trend ever since he got to the facility. How come he never ignored Blaster?  
“Ya know we’re going to go to the place! And we’re going to do it for You! So quit being a brat!”  
“Why are you yelling at Prowl?”  
“He’s giving me attitude.” I whipped around to face Blaster.  
“He’s had Shane coming in practically every day to stare at him and interrogate the staff. Of course he’s in a bad mood. So what Place are you talking about?”  
“Ya know. The Place. The place the guy works at. And his boss in there too. The tall building by the coast. The one that looks important. What other building could I be talking about?”  
“...I’m not going to get into this.... They took it as well as I expected. Ratchet assured me that he wasn’t going to let them take Prowl no matter what they offered. No one's going to just let it happen if things go there. Just like I said. Everything is going to be fine. And say things go bad and they end up deciding to take him. We’ll just take him out to sea and let him go. I think we can sneak him out. The water's edge is right outside the door. He escaped MWPA he can escape whoever Shane’s working for.”  
“I suppose you’re right there. Prowl, if things go bad don’t fight us. I know ya feel safer in there, but it’s not as safe as ya think it is. Not when people like my parents and their ‘friends’ are around.”  
Prowl didn’t offer me a response.  
444444444444444444444 The Fours Are Stealing The Sheep!44444444444444444444  
I was so ready for this. We were going to go into this building and unlock its secrets. Free the prisoners and get the girl.  
“Jazz. What are you doing?”  
“What do ya mean?”  
“We’ve gone by like three times already. Is there a reason for that?”  
“Yes. Of course there is.”  
“Would you like to share that reason with me?”  
“We can’t just go in. We have to make sure it’s safe. See what kind of people are going in there. Then we can figure out what to do from there.”  
“There are business type people going. Want to know how I know that? It’s a business building. They do business with other people.”  
“But What other people?”  
“Your parents. Lets go.”  
“... Point taken. We should probably go and switch cars before we go in. Just in case-”  
“Really?”  
“Ok, ok. I get it. Ya aren’t as cautious as I am.”  
“You mean I’m not as crazy as you are.” He grinned and I didn’t bother responding to that one.  
And in we went. It was was practically sparkling. The floor was glossy to the point where it seemed like you would slip and the windows were so clean that it seemed they didn’t exist at all. At the front desk there was a young blond typing away at a computer. To her right there were two glimmering silver elevators and even further than that there was a wide staircase. Once we stopped at the counter she looked up with a bright smile. The smile was friendly, but her eyes told a different story. Hostile. Definitely not happy to be interrupted.  
“Hi, what can I help you with today?”  
“We’re sorry to bother ya, Miss, but we just wanted to know what this building is for.” I responded with a tone just as bright as hers if not more so and equally as fake.  
“Ah. Well this building is a meeting place for many people of various classes and professions in multiple fields. Many projects are developed here and put into action. For example we as a company are learning all about mers and finding what we can learn from them. Proper communication with such a species would be magnificent. Also we are creating safer traps and supporting proper treatment of the ocean is another big project.”  
“Oh wow. That’s wonderful. Who is the guy who runs this place?”  
“I’m sorry, but he prefers to stay hidden from the media and unfortunately that also means he needs to stay unknown to the public as well. Is there anything else?”  
Wow she really looked like she wanted to bite our heads off. That smile had to be hurting now.  
“I suppose not. Oh! But maybe we can gather some supporters for this place. Do ya have any fundraisers or anything that we could spread around?”  
“The Rangel family are raising money to assist us. I’m sure you are familiar with their parties and gatherings. It is such a big thing around here.”  
“Yes, yes. Thank ya for the help, Miss. I believe that’s all we need.”  
“I am happy to be of help. Please return if you have any further questions. Have a wonderful day now.”  
I swear I could feel her glare burning into my back on the way out. She really didn’t like being bothered. Or she was always like that. That was always a possibility. The guy who ran the place was in fact male from the way things were going. That wasn’t much to go on, but it was something. We knew where he worked along with Shane.  
“So what now?”  
“Well we have to stake the place out of course. See who comes and goes. Then we’ll have to do some investigating and figure out who is running this place. I’ll try and see if Nat knows anything more as well. Another party hopefully won’t kill me.”  
“Well that’s a start I suppose. Also if you get the urge to wake me up at one am again just don’t.”


	21. Here We Are! Again!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jazz talks to his sister again and goes on a field trip.

I was actively searching for my sister this time. Faking smiles and enthusiasm and pleasantries through and around flocks of people as I hunted. I found her with her little clique. Several guys were around them. Either they were boyfriends or they were hitting on the girls. Quite honestly I couldn’t care less about that. Right now I needed Nat.  
“Nat.” I filled my voice with fake cheer and I approached. “It’s good to see you.”  
“Jazz, it’s good to see you as well. It has been a while.”  
“Almost an entire week.”  
“I assume your trip went well?”  
“It did. Rather boring compared to this.”  
“Yes. It’s so hard to find good entertainment nowadays. Excuse me everyone. I’d like to catch up with my brother.”  
I followed my sister outside and into the small garden. The grass was far livelier than the areas around it due to the watering it got. Each blade was thick and healthy. The flowers flowed in a circle around the path to the single fountain where my sister stopped. It was warm and the lights from the building made the world around us seem far darker.  
“So what do you want?”  
“Can’t I just want to talk to my favorite sister?”  
“No.” Came the clipped response.  
“Ok then. I wanted to ask ya a few things.”  
“Of course. What is it?”  
“Do ya have any idea who Shane’s boss is? Who runs that building? Anyone else who works for him? Anything?”  
“Nope. The guys a mystery. Only mom and dad know who the guy is. They do visit him at various locations though. He isn’t always in that building apparently.”  
“Where?”  
“Geez. So pushy.”  
“Nat. Please.”  
“...They usually bounce around to the high tech buildings around on the other side of the bridge. There’s a few of them. Half of the guys who work in those places are idiots. So simple minded.”  
“What are they doing there?”  
“How should I know? I avoid going anywhere further than the lobby whenever I can. I only go because dad wants me to start training in basically ripping people off. Gotta keep the ‘family business’ going. I talk to the idiots. Not try and figure out what they’re doing. I’m not doing the dealing and I don’t plan to do it anytime soon.”  
“Could ya start paying attention?”  
“You want me to Spy on mom and dad?”  
“No. Not exactly. I want ya to start asking about the idiots jobs and… further your training and just… coincidentally tell me about it.”  
“You’re a piece of work. You know that?”  
“I can live with that. So how about it?”  
“... If I get caught it’s your fault and I had no idea what you’re doing.”  
“Ok.”  
“And you owe me one.”  
“Meaning?”  
“If I ever need someone to do something stupid that I don’t want to risk I’ll call you.”  
“Basically cause some damage to some people ya don’t like.”  
“Yep.”  
“Ok. So Where exactly are these places?”  
“Ocean Klean Tech. You know the whole ‘because the ocean matters’ place. They really need a better catchphrase. Then there’s that place far on it’s own down the road almost reaching that shut down skydiving place they had a few years ago. That place is really creepy. Then the other one is basically your competition for donations. It’s another mer facility, but it’s run by whoever Shane’s boss is. Place is practically a zoo though. You can pay to get in and see what they have.”  
“Anything else ya can tell me?”  
“Every single one of them is either an idiot or is like everyone else here.”  
“So they’re assholes.”  
“Yeah. Try not to get yourself jailed.”  
444444444444444444 The Fours Are Crafting Some Sort Of Device!4444444444444444  
The following day after work we were off. The place was definitely more glamorous than our facility. The one at the desk was a little slow, but cheery nonetheless. Much better than the last lady we had to deal with. They had a variety of mers on display and it even appeared that they were taking and selling the scales of some of them. Had their own little gift shop and everything. Yep. She was right. This was more a zoo than an actually facility to help them. The ones here seemed rather healthy besides the missing scales and most of them had pods or trines. They had a lot of Geminus Avium. Trine upon trine stared out at everyone with anger and a few even looked fearful, but those were few and far between. The main emotion that we saw was anger and I couldn’t really blame them. They were being stared at on a regular basis and their scales were being yanked out on top of being forced to share space with mers outside of their pod or trine. I had to wonder just how many had gotten injured and killed before they got them to begrudgingly accept that they were going to have to share the space. Many of them had scars of some kind or another from those fights. They didn’t even have the materials to make any nests. No flora. No coral. Nothing. They were in blank tanks that looked like our quarantine tanks. They had nowhere to hide.  
Then there was an outlier. A Scindo Lascivio of blue and white coloration. Species nicknamed the Soundwave. Only there was something very wrong with this one. This one was quiet. This one was still. A species that communicated and scouted long distances by sound alone was silent. It was a form of echolocation that they could use and create with even the simple movement of its fins which was why it was always constantly moving. It made them deadly hunters at night as they didn’t need to rely on their sight. But not this one. Not even a twitching fin to churn the water to make sure it didn’t get snuck up on. And even weirder were the all of the Fractura Videte that clung to it. They were of various colors and subspecies. Likely from various nests and had either lost them or were runts and abandoned. Two nearly identical besides color Fractura Ante who seemed rather fidgety under the stares. One black Fractura Bestia whose ear fins didn’t so much as twitch. And three Fractura Geminus whose wing fins opened and closed gently. Normally Scindo Lascivio didn’t accept Fractura Videte as having the extra weight would slow it down and dampen the vibrations that they made with their fins. And yet this one didn’t seem even slightly bothered by its company and they all seemed rather happy to be there.


	22. Chapter 41 Woah...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drama. Jazz punches a dude.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I Live! I have been busy lately. School. Rescued pet that I gave to a friend as a birthday present a few years ago that she ditched now in my house. Volunteered at a humane society. Eating. Sleeping. Yep. Here's what I had.

Blaster and I came in that morning to mers howling and people arguing. We didn’t waste any time. All thoughts of what we found out and were planning to share were cast aside. It was chaos that we walked in on. It was difficult to make out who was saying what over all of the shouting, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was Prowl. Ratchet was arguing with some guy who looked far too official for my liking. Blur and Arcee were arguing and practically fighting with some crew is protective gear. Shoving and screaming. Aid was pleading with one of them. Prowl was screeching and thrashing in a reinforced net that was stalled in its job to drag him up thanks to Arcee and Blur. The other mers in the tank were fighting with the net as well, claw and fang.  
“You can’t do this! This is a private facility for mers! Tell them, Ratch!”  
“You’re stressing them all out! C- can’t we talk about this?!”  
“You have no right to just come in here and do this!”  
“You think you can just come in here and do whatever you want?! We don’t want any of your damn money! What do you think this is?! I don’t care how much you’re offering!”  
I didn’t bother tracking what Blaster did or where he went. I was just focused on getting to Prowl. He was shrieking. He was panicked. He was in danger. He needed me. I rushed to get to the accursed machine only to be blocked off. I was sure I was going to get into some serious trouble for this, but then again my parents didn’t know of my snooping and would cover my tracks for me should this get even close to getting out. After all what were my parents going to to if the families perfect reputation turned out to be not so perfect? My fist slamming into his face fullforce got him to shut up. He hit the floor hard and by the sound he made he wasn’t going to get up for a while.  
The sight of blood seeping into the water got my attention. It wasn’t much, but the fact that Prowl had cut himself on the net just fueled my temper. It seemed I wasn’t the only one either as his fan club started pulling and howling that much harder. The machine creaked and tipped slightly off it’s balance at the display of raw power. One jump over the guy I had downed and I slammed my hand on the release. The net dropped and the machine fell back on its base with a loud clang and a deafening echo that easily filled the large room. Prowl struggled free before jetting into the safety that the large nest provided. He was quickly followed.  
It was deathly silent. Just the sound of water hitting the rims of the tank. My own breathing seemed loud. Far too loud. I didn’t dare take my gaze away from where Prowl had gone.  
“Get out. Now. If you dare to show your faces here again I’ll make sure each and every one of you will regret it.”  
I was thankful for Ratchet breaking the silence. Thankful that he was ending this. I looked back at the sight of what had once been nothing but chaos. At Ratchet staring the man down without so much as a hint of weakness.  
“I assure you that you are making a huge mistake.”  
“Don’t think that I won’t make this a problem for you.”  
“One of Your sponsors-”  
“We could just as easily call the police.”  
That got him to shut up. I felt a strong sense of pride at the sight of the guy I had punched with blood running down his face and a harsh glare coming my way.  
“Fine. This isn’t even close to over.”  
Then he turned and stormed out. His little gang following at a safe distance.  
444444444444444 The Fours Have Created A Religion That Sacrifices Pillows To Goats!4444444444444444444  
Getting Prowl out of the tank and into the medbay had proven to be a bit of a challenge. The Accuratius mers were far more aggressive than usual. Despite our efforts in getting rid of the ones who had hurt him we were still viewed to be a threat. Prowl threw a fit when we took him out. He clung to Blaster since he was closest and it took pretty much everyone present to pry him off. I was the next target when Blaster was out of range. I used that to my advantage to help pull him up onto the stretcher. His whines were heartbreaking when I tried to pry him off me so I just walked alongside. He was half on and half clinging to me the whole way, but it was the best we were going to get. I didn’t doubt he’d push himself off if I did pull away. I really didn’t want to half to sedate him, but I was starting to wonder if that would be a better option with how stressful things had been.  
Thankfully the cut was minor, but if he had been grooming himself it wouldn’t have happened. The skin that was exposed and supposed to be covered by scales had taken the damage. Several scratches and one jagged cut along his lower back. Add that to the fact that one of his wing fins seemed to have taken some damage with how stiff he was holding it. Ratchet had stated that nothing was broken after looking it over, but we were to watch to make sure it healed or at least make sure it didn’t get worse.


	23. Welcome! The End Is Near

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This go downhill and Jazz searches for leads.

Our attempts to report the other facility went through, but it was obvious that nothing was going to happen. Whoever they were was too powerful. They had too much money and had a good hold on the authorities or at least whoever was in charge. They had easily slipped under that radar and it seemed to only make them angier. Whoever he was had some connection and knew how to use them just like my parents did. Multiple of our sponsors pulled back, refusing to give a reason as to why. It resulted in less hours for us, though we all came in anyway. After all we couldn’t just let Ratchet take care of everything himself. The mers needed the food and the medicine more than we needed the money at the moment. We could get other jobs, but they depended on us. They needed us to work with them, heal them, feed them. So we all stayed despite everything. Blaster and I were more or less ok with the stash I had from when I got my allowances. We chipped away at it when needed, but the others had it much rougher. We could see the exhaustion past the anger for the situation and the brief smiles when we talked. The stress was easy to see. It was thick in the air even.  
The mers seemed to sense it to. Little Bee had taken to whistling and chirping at everyone. Sunstreaker watched and made questioning sounds from time to time when we fed them. Sideswipe on the other had splashed water and followed whoever was near the tank as best as he could in an effort to try and lessen the sour mood. No one really had the heart to scold him for doing it. He was just trying to help after all. None of them could really understand what was going on. Most of the other mers did similar things. Soothing words to them seemed to reassure them for a time anyway. Though it would start up again when everyone was too quiet. Quiet was unusual and left them nervous all over again. Then there was Prowl and his fan club. Prowl was evasive and hid while the Accuratius mers collected the fish and brought it into the nest and took turns guarding the entrance. I hadn’t seen Prowl since the incident and it was worrying. No amount to tapping, bribery, or calling would get him to come out now. Eventually we’d have to drag him out again to make sure he was healing ok and I was not looking forward to that. I could just see the disaster that was going to happen.  
While Ratchet struggled with making ends meet and protect all the mers in the process Blaster and I searched for any clues as to who this guy was. Plenty of digging into the history of the building and who had owned it led to nothing. No electronic footprint at all, which should be impossible in this day and age. Someone was really being cautious. Someone didn’t want to be found. I was starting to think that I was in over my head. That we needed to get Prowl out of here as soon as possible. That he had a better chance alone out in the ocean than he had here with us. Plans of how to sneak Prowl out and into the sea started to form in the back of my mind as I searched. My vision starting to blur as I struggled to keep the text on the screen from drifting.  
Then I got a hit. Mendoza. From there things were a little easier. Everything was well hidden, but once I had one name I had them all. Their line was long and branched out to multiple parts of the world. Cain and Lucy Mendoza in England who were happily enjoying retirement and grandkids in a large beautiful house in Manchester. Lucy’s maiden name was Seager. Dan and Nina were in Manchester as well and visited Lucy and Cain often enough with their two kids while they managed their companies. Seth and Veronica Mendoza much closer in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Seth’s prior name was Seidman. Apparently they didn’t allow for Their name to changed as no matter who married who Mandoza always was their last name. Finally there was Marcel and Oswin Mendoza. Sons of Henry and Violet Mendoza. The two who now controlled Shane Leeche and more importantly the mysterious buildings including the facility with the tortured mers. Henry had passed away of natural causes though it did appear that he enjoyed his alcohol as every picture of him was with some sort of alcoholic drink. Then there was Violet who had died in a car accident. In an effort to avoid a head on collision the car had swerved and ended up rolling into a ditch. She hadn’t been wearing her seatbelt and had been tossed around enough to cause some serious damage. She had died on the way to the hospital due to a head injury and internal bleeding. Thus leaving the company to their two sons.  
I finally had something to work with, but it was one hell of a kick in the teeth when I had met one of these brothers multiple times in my life at those life sucking parties. Oswin Mendoza. This time I was going to corner him. This time I was going to finish this. Hang on Prowl. The Mendoza corporation is going down. One way or another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Marcel means Warlike while Oswin means friend of God. I was between Owen, Oscar, and Oswin as Oscar means God's spear, Oswin means friend of God, and Owen... Well I like that name. Makes me think of Owen in harvest moon. Mendoza was just a last name I liked. I have no excuse for that. At all.


	24. Oh Noooo! Whyyyy!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jazz searches for Oswin and I remember how to type.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for waiting. I know I've been updating slowly lately. I haven't been writing much.

I was simply waiting now. Leaning on the wall in the corner near the door. This ambush should have been easy enough. However it seemed my parents had a sixth sense when it came to when I was planning to cause trouble. Mother had dragged me away from my post or brought over someone else several times already. All distractions that I had a hard time getting away from. Then of course I could practically feel father’s eyes on me. Every once in a while I’d watch him back from the corner of my eye. He never moved from his spot. Always with that same cold smile and the same circle of people, but no matter who joined or left he made sure he could see me. Gaze sharp and icy. He knew I was watching him and he knew I knew he was trying to keep me away from whatever I was hoping to accomplish. Whether or not he knew I was trying to corner Oswin I couldn’t tell, but it was safer to assume he did. I didn’t doubt they had been trying to keep me from figuring out who Oswin was since this started.  
I internally winced at the sight of my mother making her way through the crowd again with Maxwell at her heels. Oh look who I found it’s your old forced friend from your childhood coming to reminisce. No thank you. I did my best to disappear when peacock Lacey Canelles and mouse Lila Canelles passed in front of them. Poor Lila looked very done with her squawking sister. She was even carrying her sister’s gaudy purse too. Thankfully my mother was easier to avoid now that the place was filling up. There were much more people to blend in with and hide behind now than there were an hour ago.  
It was in my efforts to dodge my mother that allowed me to spot my target. The problem was how I was going to talk to him without my parents interrupting. I didn’t need to start accusing anyone in the middle of this party either. Sure it would be a plus to embarrass my parents by causing a scene, but I didn’t need these people to think I was crazy and have the richy’s here alert half the population of the world. That would severely cripple our chances of fighting my parents and the Mendoza family. This needed to be done with a little more care. So that was when I decided to set my sights on Nat. Though I was a little wary of her now I was mostly sure she wasn’t involved in our parent’s plot. Besides I was sure she wouldn’t ask any questions and would want to just get back to her little friends of the night.  
“Hello, dear sister. I see you’re having a wonderful time as always.” I made the extra effort to lean as elegantly as possible on the chair next to her. “Though I would like to borrow you for a moment, please.”  
“Of course. If you would all please excuse us. My brother has such a horrible habit of bringing work with him wherever he goes.”  
“Aw. I’m not that bad, am I?”  
“You are far worse than you think you are. Mother has scolded you more than once about your habits. Father complains plenty as well, though do not tell him I said he complains.”  
“Of course not, Natalie.” One of the girls chirped out her lie. I had no doubt they would turn it into gossip later.  
“We would never.”  
“Come, brother. Shall we speak in the garden?”  
“Certainly.”  
We walked out into the moonlight together. The fountain was letting out the soft noise of moving water that clashed with the noise that came from the building behind us. I sat on its edge as Nat stared down at me. The flowers around us were easy to see despite the darkness with their bright colors. The night light came from just a sliver in the sky that was easily drown out by the bright lights that always came with large groups of people.  
“So? What do you want?”  
“I just need a favor. It’s easy enough. Do ya think ya could get Oswin Mendoza to come out here and talk to me without alerting mom and dad?”  
“Without alerting…” Nat sighed and took a seat next to me. “What the hell are you doing?”  
“Nothing. I just want to talk to him. Mom has been bringing me people I don’t want to talk to all night. I just want to have One nice conversation is all. Did ya know she was Just bringing MAXWELL over to talk? Like I would want to talk to him. I mean seriously?”  
“Jazz… We both know that’s not what’s going on.”  
I was surprised by her tone. It was too sullen and not a hint of annoyance or sarcasm. She let out a soft breath through her nose as she look up from her knees to stare at the shadows of people in the windows. From this distance that was all they were. Then she looked up at me and whatever half formed response I had died. It was almost like I had my sister back. There was a softness in her expression I hadn’t seen in years. All bitterness and irritation had fallen away to leave this. A deep sorrow that I found I could relate too more than I liked to admit. This was the first real look I had gotten of my sister in so long and I was reluctant to break the moment. For once I did it would go back to how things were.  
“I’ll do it.” She finally spoke and like a bubble popping time started to flow and her expression hardened again. “Though it might take some time. I’ll spend some time with my newest entertainment and once they aren’t watching anymore I’ll see what I can do. I’ll give you a sign if something happens or he declines.”  
Then she stood and started off without giving me the chance to respond. I couldn’t tell if that was good thing or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaaaahhhhh! I made her likeable! I can't believe I did that! Well... Sleep deprived me hopped up on chocolate pudding does whatever.


	25. Well It's 3:07 Am

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jazz gets to talk with Oswin Mendoza.

I sat on the edge of the fountain and waited. Just listening to the dull buzz of people talking further away and the much calmer sounds of the night. Despite wanting to watch for Nat’s possible signal my mind drifted back to that day. That chaotic day where they had tried to take Prowl. After making sure that Prowl was going to be ok we thought it best to try tell Ratchet and everyone else what we found again.  
“Hey, Ratch, wait. We all need to talk.”  
“What did you do?”  
“Nothing.” I responded defensively to which he raised a brow.  
“We have been looking into the guys who keep bothering Prowl. Wanting to buy him and what not.”  
“Get on with it. We all have things to do.”  
“The guy is rich. Has Klean Tech and its mer facility under his control along with some other buildings. Lots of stuff overseas. Acts like he loves the ocean, but all he’s doing is making money off of them. Exhibit A: People pay to get into their facility to stare at them. Exhibit B: They pull out their scales to sell them. Exhibit C: They pack all of the mers into small spaces and the mers have tons of scars from fights.”  
I could tell that this information was causing some upset already, but we kept going without pause and they listened. With all the tension of a bomb about to go off.  
“It’s bad. They have a lot of the dual winged mers. Two or three trines in a single tank.”  
“They are small. Really bare. It’s like our quarantine tanks here. They don’t care. They just want Prowl because he’s rare.”  
“That’s illegal. It’s abuse.” Arcee spat.  
“We need to report them. Get them out of there.” Blurr put in.  
“It won’t be that easy. Not only does the guy have cash to spare, but he has a lot of support from the public thanks to the Rangel family and their fundraisers aka my parents. They’ll just pay it to go away I’m sure.”  
“Well we can’t just sit here and do nothing.” Cliff responded.  
“We don’t. We report this. We make this a huge problem. Something they can’t ignore.” Arcee argued.  
I snapped out of my thoughts at the stream of light that darted across the grass. The door had opened and my target stepped out. Nat had done it. I instinctively straightened. He stopped before me and looked more curious than suspicious like I had expected. Problem was, was that due to confidence or how Nat worded it? Now how to start this. I could figure out how good he was at the game as we went. I stood and offered my hand.  
“Hello, Oswin. My name is Jazz Rangel.”  
He took my hand with a smile. Firm grip. Eye contact. So far so prized dog like my sister is and how I had been. The warmth in that smile was a little different. This guy was good. No one could be so welcoming to a stranger who had someone else ask them to meet with them. Away from other people at night for that matter.  
“It’s good to finally meet you. The rest of your family is so hospitable and welcoming.”  
Welcoming… Hospitable… right. So we were going to play this game. I could play just as well and get what I wanted. Getting the information I needed would take time with how richys talked around things so well, but if all else failed I had the freedom to be blunt out here with no witnesses and therefore no proof should he decide to run and tell.  
“Oh yes my family is something though I can’t say I have met any of yours despite the fact that our families work together. Excuse my ignorance, but what is your brother’s name again? And why do I never see him here?”  
“His name is Marcel and I’m sure he’d like to meet you as well. Though he never comes out to these things. He says I do better with the social events. He prefers to sit behind his desk and send me out to to all of the ‘advertising’ as he calls it. Though he really should get out more and make some friends. I’m worried about him. Maybe you could try and befriend him? Though that might be asking a lot considering that we just met.”  
Or this could be easy and take no time at all to get anything. Was this a trap?  
“Oh I could certainly try. I’m always in the market for good friends. The problem is I can never seem to find him every time I’ve tried. My friend Dan and I have tried, but he seems to want to remain anonymous.”  
“Oh I know. He’s so paranoid that someone is going to betray him or someone will turn the media on him should be reveal himself and put a face to our business. I’m hoping that more contact with people will help. He’s been so closed off since our parents died.”  
Ok he seemed way too genuine. Was he really this naive? How could anyone at this level of society have any innocence? That was usually taken out of you at a very young age. He didn’t even ask why we were looking for his brother. There was no suspicion. No caution. Like he trusted me. A stranger.  
“I can’t pretend to understand how either of you felt as I have both of my parents. I can however be both of your friends.”  
“That would be wonderful. No one ever wants to try to be my brothers friend and I can’t understand why. I suppose it’s hard to be friends with someone who never comes out.”  
“I’m sure we’ll all be great friends once we get passed the beginning of friendship awkwardness. Besides I’m willing to go to him if he doesn’t want to come to us. Just give me a time. I’m free anytime in the name of making friends.”  
“That’s great. I usually have lunch with Marcel every other day. If you’d like you can join us tomorrow at one.”  
“That sounds good. I’ll be there.”  
“I’ll wait for you at the entrance to the Mendoza office building then. Do you know where it is?”  
“Of course. I’ll see you then.”  
“Wonderful. My brother can be a little prickly when it comes to new people, just to warn you.”  
“That’s fine. My sister can be plenty prickly herself when she wants to be. It’ll take more than that to scare me away.”  
“Oh I’m sorry. Your sister said that you wanted to speak with me about something and here we are going on about my problems with my brother. What is it you wanted to talk about?”  
“I just wanted to finally meet you. Sorry for calling you out here. I just wanted to get away from the noise for awhile.”  
“I understand completely. I get plenty sick of it myself. Though I suppose it’s about time I head back. I’ll see you tomorrow Jazz. It was nice talking to you.”  
“I enjoyed talking to you as well. Have a good evening.”  
I sat back down on the edge of the fountain. That had gone far better than I had ever hoped for. What luck to have my enemies brother so naive. Hopefully my luck would continue to hold out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone so much for waiting. I won't give up this story. It's one of my favorites. It was 2:10 Am when I couldn't sleep and took me a while to write, but considering... everything I think this is turning out well.


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